NEW PEUGEOT 9X8 HYPERCAR – DESIGNED TO RACE

PEUGEOT unveils the prototype of the Hypercar 9X8, its brand-new generation competition car, set to debut in 2022 in the FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC). Hyper-efficient, powered by a hybrid engine and equipped with all-wheel drive, the PEUGEOT 9X8 is part of the Neo-Performance strategy developed by PEUGEOT, which aims to offer more virtuous and responsible performance, both on production vehicles than in competition. An unprecedented convergence of the work of the PEUGEOT Sport engineering team and the PEUGEOT Design team was implemented to give birth to 9X8.

It is after intense months of joint work that the development engineers under the responsibility of Olivier Jansonnie, technical director of PEUGEOT Sport, and the designers led by Matthias Hossann, PEUGEOT Design Director, reveal the main lines and the aerodynamic concept of this PEUGEOT 9X8.

At the rear of the PEUGEOT 9X8, finely chiselled elements accommodate the three luminous claws of the lights, which frame a large diffuser, topped with a humorous inscription: “We need no rear wing” need rear wing).

“The new Le Mans Hypercar (LMH) regulations have been designed so that all the classic performance vectors are leveled,” explains Olivier Jansonnie, Technical Director of the PEUGEOT Sport WEC program. It’s exciting, because it’s up to us to invent, innovate and find opportunities to generate performance outside of traditional patterns. This was particularly the case for aerodynamics. The regulations allow us to have a single adjustable aerodynamic element, without it being specified that it must be the rear wing. Our calculations and simulations demonstrated that we could perform very well without a rear wing.”

In addition to aerodynamic, mechanical and electronic efficiency, all the know-how of PEUGEOT engineering is validated in racing, and more than elsewhere in the extreme event that is the 24 Hours of Le Mans. The 5,400 kilometers that the cars cover at Le Mans in two clock laps is more or less as much as a Formula 1 car over an entire season. The level of requirements in terms of reliability and efficiency is therefore absolute.

Linda Jackson insists: “PEUGEOT’s commitment to Endurance goes beyond just competition: it is an extreme laboratory for Peugeot. This is also what explains why our link with Le Mans is so powerful. The sporting result is important, but perhaps even more so the validation of our technologies and our research during a 24 Hour race contested in ultimate conditions. We will test in competition the hybridization system and the technologies relating to the reduction of fuel consumption – and therefore CO2 emissions – that we are currently developing for our production vehicles. It is a source of pride for our PEUGEOT Sport teams to see their research integrated into the cars in our range. For our customers, this Le Mans laboratory is a guarantee of the quality of our cars. »

Through its commitment to the World Endurance Championship, PEUGEOT is opening a new register which is that of neo-performance.

The brand returns to endurance with the exceptional opportunity to work on the sport in the form of gasoline/electric hybridization. Electric hybridization is a technology mastered by PEUGEOT Sport for more than 10 years. The 508 PEUGEOT SPORT ENGINEERED draws its philosophy, technology and performance from this experience acquired with the PEUGEOT 908 Hybrid4 and the PEUGEOT 908 HY demonstrator, then with the PEUGEOT 208 HYbrid FE project and more recently the PEUGEOT 308 R Hybrid presented in 2015.

The 508 PEUGEOT SPORT ENGINEERED today represents the synthesis of this work and this technological mastery. She is the worthy heir of the previously mentioned projects. The DNA of competition and the technological mastery of PEUGEOT Sport are found in this vehicle, a synthesis of very high performance, controlled emissions values (46g CO2), and ZEV Zero Emission Vehicle mobility of 42km (WLTP) .