Monza, Fuji and Bahrain enduros all locked in, but no Le Mans until next year
The 2022 Peugeot 9X8’s date with destiny is fast approaching and so the French car-maker has tweaked a few of the key details for its brand-new LMH hypercar racer ahead of its competitive debut at Monza round of the FIA World Endurance Championship on July 10.
The main spec changes are an uprated power output of 520kW from its 2.6-litre twin-turbo petrol V6 – up from 500kW – and a confirmed weight figure of just 1030kg.
As previously reported, the screaming internal-combustion V6 will power the rear wheels, while a 200kW electric motor will be solely responsible for driving the front wheels.
Dimensionally, the Peugeot 9X8 measures a not insubstantial 4995mm long overall, as well as a broad 2000mm wide and just 1145mm tall.
It is fitted with a 90-litre fuel tank while the electric motor is sustained by a 900-volt battery pack.
Despite being designed from the ground up as a dedicated LMH (Le Mans Hybrid) race car, the 9X8 will skip this year’s event and make its debut at the famous French endurance race next year, but that doesn’t mean Peugeot will be absent from the 2022 edition.
According to brand executives, a dedicated display will be erected in the Fan Village.
Come July, the two 9X8s competing at Monza will be piloted by Paul Di Resta, Loïc Duval, Mikkel Jensen, Gustavo Menezes, James Rossiter and Jean-Éric Vergne, before the cars go on to race at the Six Hours of Fuji (September) and the Eight Hours of Bahrain (November).
“The Peugeot 9X8 is effectively the physical embodiment of the concept we revealed back in July 2021,” said Peugeot of its long-awaited return to endurance racing.
“The challenge we have faced in recent months has been two-fold and has involved forming a team to then produce a car and prepare it for its competitive debut.
“With only weeks to go until its maiden competitive outing at Monza, the Peugeot 9X8 has been clocking up the kilometres in testing at a variety of circuits.”
Anyone holding out hope for a road-going derivative of the 9X8 will be sadly disappointed; LMH teams now only need to offer a production vehicle featuring a similar powertrain concept to the race cars – as opposed to a full-on production version – which in this case are the 2022 Peugeot 3008 GT Sport and Peugeot 508 GT Sport plug-in hybrids.
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Keyword: Peugeot 9X8 hypercar racer is ready to rumble