Peugeot Sport has shown off its brand new FIA World Endurance Championship-bound Le Mans Hypercar, the 9X8, ahead of its expected race debut during the 2022 season.
The radical-looking car is set to dazzle, with its ‘wing-less’ design, its hybrid-powered rear-mounted, 2.6-litre, bi-turbo, 500kW (680hp), 90-degree V6 engine, front-mounted 200kW motor-generator unit, seven-speed sequential gearbox and battery developed by Peugeot Sport and Saft, a subsidiary of TotalEnergies (formerly TOTAL Motorsport).
The model name 9X8 has been chosen as it combines ‘9’, as a nod to Peugeot’s previous topflight sportscars, ‘X’ which refers to its all-wheel-drive technology and hybrid powertrain and ‘8’, the suffixed used for all of Peugeot’s current models.
Peugeot’s bold statement is clearly the car’s aero, as it believes “there is an opportunity to achieve the required level of performance without a rear wing”.
“The new Le Mans Hypercar regulations were drawn up to level out the importance of conventional performance-boosting systems,” explains Olivier Jansonnie, Peugeot Sport’s WEC Programme Technical Director.
“Designing the 9X8 has been a passionate experience because we had the freedom to invent, innovate and explore off-the-wall ways to optimise the car’s performance, and more especially its aerodynamics. The regulations stipulate that only one adjustable aerodynamic device is permitted, without specifying the rear wing. Our calculation work and simulations revealed that high performance was effectively possible without one.”
“The absence of a rear wing on the Peugeot 9X8 is a major innovative step,” adds Stellantis Motorsport Director Jean-Marc Finot. “We have achieved a degree of aerodynamic efficiency that allows us to do away with this feature. Don’t ask how, though! We have every intention of keeping that a secret as long as we possibly can!”
Peugeot’s design team has also tried to incorporate clear styling cues from the constructor’s branding. The 9X8’s front and rear lights take the form of ‘three claw-like strokes’, linked to Peugeot trademarks, while the brand’s new lion’s head logo features in backlit form at the front and on the sides of the car.
The Selenium Grey and contrasting Kryptonite colour scheme, on display in the cockpit meanwhile, is a nod to the colour scheme chosen for the new Peugeot Sport Engineered line which was introduced with the 508 and 508 SW.
“We wanted to take a special approach to the cockpit which, until now, has tended to be a purely functional and indistinctive aspect of racing cars, with no brand identity whatsoever,” underlines Matthias Hossann. “The combination of our colour scheme and Peugeot’s i-Cockpit interior styling signature have provided the 9X8’s cockpit with a distinctive feel and make it immediately identifiable as a Peugeot in on-board camera shots.
“Since the 9X8 is a Peugeot, the original sketch that steered our work portrayed a big cat ready to pounce, a stance which we have suggested by the slightly forward-tilting cockpit”, he continues. “The overall lines of the Peugeot 9X8 express the brand’s styling cues, while its sleek, racy, elegant forms inspire emotion and dynamism.”
Peugeot 9X8 Technical Data
Class: Le Mans Hypercar (LMH)
Length: 5,000mm
Width: 2,080mm
Height: 1,180mm
Wheelbase: 3,045mm
Powertrain: PEUGEOT HYBRID4 500KW (all-wheel drive)
Rear-drive train: 500kW (680hp), 2.6L twin-turbo, 90-degree V6 petrol internal combustion
engine + seven-speed sequential transmission
Front-drive train: 200kW electric motor-generator + single-speed reducer
Battery: High density, 900-volt battery co-designed by Peugeot Sport, TotalEnergies/Saft
Fuel and lubricants: TotalEnergies
The video accompanying the reveal can be found below:
Introducing the @Peugeot 9X8 Hypercar, @peugeotsport‘s contender set to race in #WEC and at #LeMans24 in 2022. pic.twitter.com/t9aA8ad00k
— WEC (@FIAWEC) July 6, 2021
More to follow…
Images courtesy of Peugeot
