Throwback Thursday: Inside The Peugeot 208 T16 Pikes Peak – Niraranra

For this Throwback Thursday submit, we’re as quickly as as soon as extra winding the clock once more 10 years to October 2013, when Speedhunters obtained up shut and personal with Peugeot’s 208 T16 Pikes Peak.

Just some months prior, the motorsport world watched as nine-time WRC champion Sébastien Loeb bettered the then current Pikes Peak Worldwide Hill Climb report (Rhys Millen, Hyundai Genesis Coupe, 9:46.164, PPIHC 2012) by better than 90 seconds. Loeb’s 8:13.878 run up the 12.42-mile course had many people questioning (ourselves included) whether or not or not the time would possibly ever be crushed. There was good trigger to imagine this too, as Peugeot had thrown all of it on the 2013 Pikes Peak Worldwide Hill Climb – the twenty fifth anniversary of the French automaker’s historic first PPIHC win – by engineering an 875hp/875kg vehicle and enlisting one in all many world’s largest drivers to ship it up the hill. In any case, tons can change in a decade, however it solely took 5 years for Peugeot/Loeb’s report back to fall. And 5 years on, Romain Dumas’s 07:57.148 report time set throughout the all-electric Volkswagen I.D. R Pikes Peak nonetheless stands.

Irrespective of that though, the Peugeot 208 T16 Pikes Peak lives on in PPIHC historic previous as a merely unimaginable machine.

The dramatic lunar-esque panorama that helps define the world’s most well-known hill climb hasn’t modified since Rea Wentz set the distinctive tempo with a 20:55.600 time in his Romano Demon Explicit on the 1916 event’s attribute race, nonetheless full paving of the troublesome road course and a consequent provision that has allowed the utilization of full slick tyres, make the PPIHC a extremely completely completely different beast to the one it initially was. Some said the ‘Race to the Clouds’ would fade away into oblivion as quickly because the Pikes Peak Freeway misplaced its distinctive all-dirt DNA, nonetheless following the event of 30 June 2013, it seems like further of a model new beginning.

That, actually, is thanks partially to the driving skills of this man: nine-time World Rally Champion Sébastien Loeb.

And this machine: Peugeot’s mind-numbing 208 T16 Pikes Peak.

As he does yearly, Larry delivered some great post-event safety from this yr’s PPIHC, nonetheless just some days earlier to Loeb rewriting the report books collectively along with his unfathomably-quick 8m13.878-second sprint to the summit, Sean was invited to take a behind-the-scenes check out Peugeot Sport’s operation all through a personal check out session at Pikes Peak Worldwide Speedway.

An opportunity to see one in all many largest triumphs of effectivity automotive engineering with its clothes off? Some points in life merely don’t require a second thought.

Engineered To Win

Although the 208 T16 programme acquired right here collectively in a extremely temporary home of time, chances are you’ll say that Peugeot’s return to Pikes Peak was 25 years throughout the making. In any case, the French automaker was hardly going to let the important anniversary of Ari Vatanen’s profitable drive in its 405 T16, a savage machine spawned from the Group B interval of rallying and the gruelling Paris Dakar endurance race, cross quietly.

As many who’ve tried will attest, engineering a vehicle to win the PPIHC is easier said than carried out – to not point out in merely six temporary months. Nonetheless amazingly, that’s all the time Peugeot Sport had been allotted ahead of its first scheduled shakedown. Setting up one factor totally from scratch was under no circumstances going to be attainable given the constraints, nonetheless with a crew of gifted engineers and a worthwhile Le Mans prototype endurance racing programme to draw upon, it knew the place to start out out.

In quite a bit the similar method Peugeot engineered its 205 T16 to deal with Audi’s Sport Quattro and Lancia’s Delta S4 all through rallying’s wildest years, the 208 T16 accommodates a tubular chrome-moly steel chassis wrapped in custom-formed carbon fibre panels.

In an effort to acquire Peugeot Sport’s desired kerb weight of merely 875 kilograms, extreme measures had been taken – perhaps nowhere further evident than throughout the constructing of the doorways. As you probably can see, these are mainly made up of some layers of carbon fibre and thin polycarbonate dwelling home windows.

Comparable Group-B-meets-modern-day methodology has been taken beneath the lightweight composite pores and pores and skin too, with four-wheel drive and a high-powered turbocharged engine.

The latter is an evolution of the 3.2-litre DOHC 24-valve 60-degree V6 Peugeot ES9 JS4 unit that Braveness utilised in its Pescarolo C60 Le Mans prototype. Initially Peugeot Sport had toyed with the considered rising the hybrid (diesel turbo and electrical) powerplant from its factory-entered 908 HDi Le Mans racer for the 208 T16 software program, nonetheless offered that engine’s bodily dimensions and weight – to not level out the time constraints imposed upon them – the untravelled road was shortly dominated out.

That made the ES9 the plain choice. In Le Mans guise the engine had generated better than 500 reliable horsepower with energy-sapping FIA restrictors in its turbocharger inlets, nonetheless with a revised pair of Garrett compressors and utterly no requirement to be corked up for the Peak, Peugeot Sport’s 875 horsepower goal – for a 1:1 power-to-weight ratio – was under no circumstances going to be too a variety of a stretch.

Seeing all that power to the underside as efficiently as attainable, required a driveline specification of equal magnitude. Peugeot Sport tapped into its WRC property for the transmission, integrating a six-speed sequential gearbox in a longitudinal place and equipping it with steering column mounted paddle shifters.

The rest of the driveline, and in actuality the rest of its underbody componentry, is all derived from the Le Mans 908, nonetheless tailor-made to go well with throughout the 208 T16’s {{custom}} chassis. That options the suspension design, which revolves spherical double wishbones and pushrod/rocker arm actuation the least bit 4 corners, along with torsion bars, pressurised dampers, and adjustable anti-roll bars.

The Brembo brakes are 908 fare too; significantly 380mm vented carbon fibre rotors and six-pot monoblock callipers on the doorway end, and a 355mm package deal deal on the rear.

Engineered using System 1 know-how, the 18×13-inch OZ Racing wheels the least bit 4 corners attribute magnesium constructing. After which there are the tyres: 31/71×18 slicks that Michelin designed and manufactured utterly for the 208 T16 and the record-chasing drawback.

Unsurprisingly, there’s been a no-nonsense technique to the within home, the place the primary goal as quickly as further has been on weight minimisation – although not on the expense of safety.

It’s proper right here the place you’ll moreover uncover an intricate web of 4130 steel bars that sort every the chassis and the occupant cell, along with supporting completely different items such as a result of the steering mechanism.

For optimum weight distribution, ancillary items are unfold evenly throughout the cockpit and, like nearly every completely different Pikes Peak Limitless class vehicle, the driving force seat is centrally mounted.

Peak Effectivity

In case you wanted to decide on the 208 T16’s one defining attribute, actually it should be the best way through which it appears. Based totally – and I exploit that point interval very loosely proper right here – off Peugeot’s 208 manufacturing vehicle,  the outward design of the Pikes Peak machine was executed at Peugeot’s Design Center using dimensions and parameters set by Peugeot Sport.

With speeds on the hill ranging between 50km/h on the tight hairpin turns by way of to 240km/h on the longer straights, the aerodynamic facet of the assemble was massively important. Nonetheless with no time to prototype a scale model and undertake wind tunnel testing, Peugeot Sport turned to Exa Company and its PowerFLOW simulation software program program (which had been beforehand utilised on its 908 programme) to completely maximise the effectivity of the T16’s downforce aids.

There are many options to the aero package deal deal, nonetheless from a visual standpoint the pièce de résistance is a two-meter broad wing that Peugeot Sport derived instantly from the first-generation 908 HDi FAP endurance racer.

As radical and aggressive as its outward look is maybe though, beneath the car is the place a full-length carbon fibre under-tray resides, and that, in keeping with Peugeot Sport, is the place practically half of the 208 T16’s downforce is generated.

Blended, the aero aids provided the Peugeot with enough downforce that in the midst of the car’s vigorous shakedown, Loeb likened it to a System 1 vehicle.

With quite a bit invested into Peugeot’s Pikes Peak comeback, to not level out that 25-year anniversary of its iconic first win, Loeb was beneath massive stress to ship a worthwhile effectivity. Nonetheless, if there was anyone on the planet who may be relied upon to convey dwelling the title, it’s the individual they identify Le Patron – translation: The Boss.

Peugeot knew it had a vehicle and the crew better than capable of rewriting the report, nonetheless there’s quite a bit further to worthwhile the Pikes Peak Worldwide Hill Climb, offered that every one of it boils all the best way right down to just one single run up the hill. The local weather for instance, can change in a blink of a watch mounted on this harsh environment, as earlier winners Nobuhiro ‘Monster’ Tajima and Rod Millen every found all through their explicit individual makes an try throughout the Electrical Division.

Nonetheless, as everybody is aware of, it was a dream run – and two-seconds quicker than Peugeot Sport’s calculations steered the time the car would possibly acquire if pushed faultlessly in good circumstances. Loeb’s widespread tempo: 145km/h.

It’s been said that the 8m13.878-second record-rewriting blast up the mountain may under no circumstances be broken, and offered that whole second place getter and 2012 PPIHC winner, Rhys Millen, accomplished better than 50 seconds behind Loeb, if the day does come, it’s maybe some time away. In step with Peugeot Sport head Bruno Famin, there isn’t a such factor as a plan to return in attempt to elevate the bar even further. He hasn’t totally dominated out the thought though, significantly if one different producer decided to have crack, quite a bit within the similar method Peugeot initially did, when it broke Audi’s stronghold in 1987. For now though, the feat made by one man and his wild machine on June 30, 2013 goes down throughout the historic previous books as one in all many largest motoring achievements of all time.

Brad Lord
brad@speedhunters.com

Footage by Sean Klingelhoefer
www.seanklingelhoefer.com

2013 Peugeot 208 T16 Pikes Peak

Numbers: 875hp/875kg, 0-100km/h: 1.8sec, 0-200km/h: 4.8sec, prime tempo: 240km/h

Engine: Peugeot Sport 3.2L, 60-degree V6, DOHC 24-valve, twin Garrett turbochargers, 40L gasoline cell

Driveline: 6-speed longitudinally-mounted sequential transmission with paddle shifters, Peugeot Sport LMP 908-derived four-wheel drive

Suspension/Brakes: Peugeot Sport LMP 908-dervied double wishbones and pushrod/rocker arm actuation the least bit 4 corners, torsion bars, pressurised dampers, anti-roll bars entrance/rear, hydraulic power steering, vented carbon fibre brakes, rotors 380mm (entrance) 355mm (rear), monoblock callipers

Wheels/Tyres: 18×13-inch magnesium alloy wheels, custom-made Michelin 31/71×18 full slicks

Chassis: Peugeot Sport {{custom}} tubular steel chassis, {{custom}} 2013 Peugeot 208-inspired carbon fibre physique work, carbon fibre entrance splitter, carbon fibre beneath tray, carbon fibre rear diffuser, Peugeot Sport LMP 908-derived rear wing