After half a season of delays, Peugeot's wingless wonder is finally racing in the FIA World Endurance Championship.
FIA World Endurance Championship / YouTubeOne year ago, Peugeot revealed its 9X8 Le Mans Hypercar with no wing and no plans to add one later. The car’s debut was delayed by a long and rocky development, but it is finally homologated for FIA World Endurance Championship competition in its racing form and will finally debut this weekend at Monza. That means today’s practice sessions were its first public laps in anger, which means we finally have on-board video of the most interesting new sports car of a very interesting new generation of sports cars.
So far, the 9X8 seems to be working just fine. Peugeot’s half-season WEC effort is largely in preparation for a fight for a Le Mans win and championship next year, but the new car already looks up to the task of fighting for overall wins against the pair of Toyota GR010s that won Le Mans in each of the past two years.
Like the GR010, it has a a twin turbo V-6 powering the rear wheels and a hybrid drivetrain sending power to the front. That seems to be the growing standard for LMH-spec sports cars, while the LMDh-spec cars set to debut in 2023 seen so far have chosen to go with V-8s. All of those cars, including the headlining entries from Porsche and Cadillac, use a spec hybrid system that only delivers power to the rear wheels.
The No. 93 9X8 in the video finished practice third, a second off the leading time set by Scuderia Cameron Glickenhaus and ahead of both Toyota entries. The six hour race runs on Sunday morning.
Keyword: Watch the Peugeot 9X8's First Official Laps