What's this all about?

Peugeot is trickle feeding us information on its Paris Motor Show debutantes and the latest is a hot new version of the 308. It's called the 308 GT and it'll be offered in five-door hatchback and SW estate formats with petrol or diesel engines under the bonnet.

Diesel?! It thought this was a 'hot' version.

'Warm' would be more appropriate, admittedly, but it's as hot as the Peugeot 308 line-up gets until the French company gets around to putting a fire-breathing 308 R into production. The GT should be no slouch though: the petrol version gets a 1.6-litre turbocharged four-cylinder unit producing 205hp and 285Nm of torque - the latter between 1,750- and 4,500rpm - and it comes with a six-speed manual gearbox. The diesel engine, a 2.0-litre 'BlueHDi' unit, appears to be available with an automatic transmission only. Power peaks at 180hp, and maximum torque is 400Nm at 2,000rpm so it won't feel much slower than the petrol model. And it comes with emissions as low as 103g/km.

Enough of that, how fast is it?

We don't really know. Peugeot's press release went into a lot of detail on the lowered, stiffened suspension, the upgraded braking system and something it calls the Driver Sport Pack (in summary: it's sporty feeling unless you switch this off), but neglected to release acceleration times other than to say the diesel version of the GT needs only 5.5 seconds to acceleration from 50- to 70mph in fifth gear. Is that any good?

It looks a bit subtle, doesn't it?

We're hoping that's to leave room at the top of the range for a more overtly sporting 308 R. In fairness, the 308 GT does have plenty of unique touches, such as the new front grille design, but it doesn't shout about its abilities.

When can we find out more?

The 308 GT will debut at next month's Paris Motor Show (we'll be there of course) and the order books open a month later ahead of January 2015 deliveries. We don't have any pricing details as yet, but for reference the current range-topping petrol-fuelled hatch, the 308 Feline 1.6 THP 156, costs £21,750 on-the-road, and the 308 Feline 2.0 BlueHDi 150 auto is £24,445, so the new GT will definitely be a bit more than that.