primotipo…

Sebastien Loeb takes his Peugeot 208 T16 over the Pikes Peak finishing line on 30 June 2013. He set the current climb record at Pikes Peak in his 208 T16 that weekend…

His time of 8:13.878 was 50 seconds quicker than second placegetter Rhys Millen’s time which was 44 seconds quicker than his previous best! It was an all-out ‘big budget’ attack on the event which was repaid in spades by the 9 times World Rally Champion.

Loeb spoke of the particular challenges of preparing for the event on the Red Bull website;

‘It was quite short on time for Peugeot to build a car and for me to test it. I had the first test near Paris, just for an hour. Then I wanted to go on a track because I needed some space to understand how the car behaves, it’s so impressive, with so much acceleration, braking and downforce, that I needed to drive on a big track. So we went to Circuit Paul Ricard and then to Mont Ventoux in France. It’s a place that looks a little bit like Pikes Peak, so it was good to practice there.’

‘You need to be 100 percent sure of every corner of the track. Before I went to America, I started to watch some videos to start to learn it. Then I went there with my rally co-driver, Daniel Elena and I took some notes like I take in a rally, describing all the road, all the corners, all the angles, everything. Then I started to learn these notes by heart and before every corner I knew, OK, that’s the 130 right, that’s the 140 left and so I could remember all the track like that.’

‘This car is closer to a racing car than a rally car because you have big slicks, you have a lot of downforce, a big engine. You also have 4WD and that’s a bit closer to rally, but it’s so powerful compared to a rally car that you cannot really compare. The driving is very different, you have to drive more like on a track with a racing car, using the downforce, keeping the speed in the high speed corners and braking very late because of the downforce. It’s a car you cannot slide. When you start to slide it starts to bump, so it’s not made for that! You drive it like an F1 car, just using the right line and not sliding.

‘When I was on the start line I was really ready and 100 percent confident with the car. I was sure of my preparation and feeling good. There was no point where I really had a moment. I was pushing, but I was feeling safe, so no big moments and I was able to put all my best sectors together for race day’.

Technical Specifications…

Peugeot described the car as ‘practically an out-and-out endurance racing prototype’. Half of the downforce generated by the 208 comes from the specially designed undertray which sits beneath the car.

The 3.2-litre, twin-turbo V6 engine develops 875bhp, a 6 speed sequential gearbox, 4 wheel drive, carbon brakes and double wishbone suspension all round with pushrods actuating torsion bars all part of a highly sophisticated package.

The 208 chassis was of ‘old school’ multi-tubular spaceframe construction the car weighing 875Kg.

Peugeot Sport engineer Jean-Christophe Pallier said: ‘Your imagination is the only limit when you set out to design a car for Pikes Peak. We’ve shaved the car down to 875 kilogrammes and as a result we’ve achieved the magic and symbolic power to weight ratio of 1:1, one bhp for every one kg of weight.’

The six-speed transmission, carbon brakes, air intake and aero-including the two-metre wide rear wing, are all from the 908 Le Mans car. The mid-engined 208, as geared, did 0-62mph in 1.8 seconds and zero to its top speed of 150mph in 7 seconds.

Results…

Click on this link for a good article on the 2013 event

http://www.autoblog.com/2013/07/01/race-recap-the-lion-roars-at-2013-pikes-peak-international-hill/

YouTube footage of Seb’s run is worth a look!…

Credits…

Joe Klamar, Red Bull Racing

Tailpiece: The Peak 1957…