Tag: loeb

This weekend saw Sebastien Loeb try out the Peugeot 208T16 at Pikes Peak for the first time ahead of this year’s event. His test run was split into two stages, covering the lower half of the run on Saturday and the second half on Sunday. On both occasions he was fastest overall. The divided programme was aimed at building up Loeb’s knowledge and pace notes ahead of his first full runs.

The 9-time WRC champion felt immediately comfortable with the  208T16, even though he only completed his first meaningful run in the car last month.

I feel very confident with the car. That’s a reassuring start, if only because of the speeds we get up to here. We are already getting close to the limit in many places. All we need to do now is make some detail changes and we will be ready for the big day.

– Sebastien Loeb

Peugeot’s sport director Bruno Famin was happy with the weekend’s result saying that the car suited Loeb and barely any changes to the car’s set-up were required. Loeb will participate in three more official practice sessions at the end of this week. The main event takes place on June 30.

Read more about the specially crafted Peugeot 208T16 which is being piloted by Sebastien Loeb at the 2013 Pikes Peak Hill Climb here and here.

Peugeot has released a new video of the 208 T16 undergoing heavy testing at Mont Ventoux in preparation for the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb to be held at the end of this month. The location for one of the most grueling stages of the Tour de France, Mont Ventoux represents the perfect spot to test the car because of its steep terrain and high attitudes which attracted racers as far back as 1902. Using the last six kilometers of the mountain’s summit road, the 208 T16 tested at rather high altitudes for Europe, but with a peak of 6,263 feet, even the barren summit is more than 3,000 feet below the start of the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb. The finish line sits at 14,110 feet, nearly 5,000 feet above the start.

This is what team technical chief Jean-Christophe Pailler had to say:

Okay, the altitude isn’t as extreme here as it is at Pikes Peak which reaches 4,301 meters, but it’s a valuable intermediate step. It allows us to see the differences in the way the engine functions, although we hope to suffer less from altitude-induced power-loss than our rivals because of the turbochargers we have chosen.

The Peugeot team is very confident that they have a car which can not only win the Hill Climb, but obliterate the competition, and they may be right considering that the mid-mounted 3.2-litre V6 power plant produces 875 bhp. It is connected to a six-speed sequential transmission and an all-wheel drive system that enables the 875 kg race car to accelerate from 0-100 km/h in just 1.8 seconds. If that wasn’t enough, Peugeot have 9-time WRC champion, Sebastien Loeb piloting the 208 T16 up the hill.

Watch the video below to see how Loeb gets along with the 208 T16 at Mont Ventoux.

[youtube id=”6sHlBX4KqBM” width=”100%” height=”300px”]

Enjoy some pictures of the 208 T16 in its Red Bull race livery, as well as the previewed all-black version.

News source: Car Magazine

Image credit: GTspirit.com

In 1988, former Finnish World Rally Champion (WRC), Ari Vatanen won the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb in a record-breaking time with his turbocharged Peugeot 405 T16. This famous feat was documented in an equally famous short film by Jean Louis Mourey called ‘Climb Dance’. Peugeot is now making a return to Pikes Peak after a 14-year absence with the stunning 208 T16. The radically designed car will be piloted by the most successful driver in WRC history and a record 9-time champion, Sebastien Loeb.

If Loeb was Batman, the 208 T16 would do a fair job of playing the batmobile. Save for the head and taillights, and the basic outline of the car, nothing is resemblant of the production Peugeot 208. Sporting extreme proportions, the body has been designed for maximum aerodynamic performance. The carbon body sports a massive rear wing borrowed from the Le Mans-winning Peugeot 908, and a gigantic splitter at the front evident of the focus on aerodynamics. The V6 turbo petrol engine has been tuned to produce more than 800 bhp to compensate for the loss in output as the air gets thin at high altitudes, and the Peugeot is fitted with 2 self-locking differentials so as to ensure that the right wheels get the power at the right time. Peugeot said performance specifications and final livery will be revealed soon. Whether it will retain the black exterior apparently is undecided. 

The Pikes Peak International Hill Climb aka The Race to the Clouds, is an annual automobile and motorcycle hillclimb to the summit of Pikes Peak in Colorado Springs, USA. The 19.99 km long climb begins at a height of 1,440 m and ends at 4,300 m offering a different kind of challenge to racers and teams than usual track racing. It is now the second oldest motorsport event in the USA, with the first edition held back in 1916.