Peugeot 908 Unveiled

Staying ahead of the competition is what it is all about when it comes to racing. Developing new technologies and designing cars that will hopefully secure victory is what every racing team strives to do. After winning the 2010 Le Mans Cup, the Peugeot team is even more determined that their new Peugeot 908 will be the car to beat in the upcoming season. The French team also managed to secure the 2009 season and even more determined to maintain their winning streak, so last Thursday the public were given the first glimpse of the Peugeot 908.

The design and construction of the Peugeot 908 was done under the project name of 90X. All changes and development of the new car comply with the regulations of the Automobile Club de l’Ouest (ACO). Great excitement is building around seeing the new vehicle perform on the track. One of the changes made to the new vehicle was seeing the V12 being replaced by a 3.7 V8 power plant, as the new regulations are enforcing smaller displacement engines. It has been fitted at a ninety degree angle and now produces 542 bhp.

In regard to the aerodynamics of the car, engineers have managed to redesign the car in such a way that the down force has been slightly reduced, to enable the car to maintain the same speed as its predecessor. The shark fin has also been adjusted and designers have strived to make the car more aerodynamic. The Peugeot 908 will also feature the same size tires front and rear.

The Sport’s Technical Director of Peugeot, Bruno Famin, commented that testing the car has aided them in solving a few issues they had with the car, saying: “We did indeed have problems but we succeeded in resolving them one by one as we got more and more kilometers on the clock. One of the very positive points we found was that the car’s handling lived up to our expectations out of the box. With regard to its other strengths and weaknesses, we will need to wait until the first races to see how we compare with our rivals.”

The drivers for the coming Le Mans have been announced to be Simon Pagenaud, Sebastien Bourdais and Pedro Lamy for car number nine; Marc Gene, Anthony Davidson and Alex Wurz for car number seven; and Frank Montagny, Stephane Sarrazin and Nicolas Minassian in car number eight. With the new car and drivers announced for the 2011 season, Peugeot seems ready to take on the Le Mans.