Peugeot 9X8 new aerodynamics unveiled

WECHyperCar

Mar 25

Having completed several thousand kilometres of tests, Team Peugeot TotalEnergies is delighted to unveil the 2024 PEUGEOT 9X8, which will make its competitive début at the 6 Hours of Imola (21 April), round two of the 2024 FIA World Endurance Championship.

📷 Courtesy of Peugeot Sport. The new 9X8

In order to make the most of changes to the regulations that allow teams to deploy a more effective tyre set-up using different widths at the front (29cm) and rear (34cm), the Peugeot Sport team has adapted the aerodynamics of the PEUGEOT 9X8, whilst modifying 90% of the bodywork, which now features a rear wing.

📷 TOP: Courtesy of Peugeot Sport; BOTTOM: © Luc Warnotte at Monza 2022 and 2023. The new 9X8 versus 2022 and 2023 versions

For the third year running, Peugeot Design and Peugeot Sport have worked together to come up with a very special livery, designed exclusively by PEUGEOT’s in-house teams. The brand’s emblematic Lion – a symbol of speed, flexibility and strength – lies at the heart of the design.

📷 LEFT: © Luc Warnotte at Le Mans 2023; RIGHT: © Luc Warnotte at Monza 2023.

After a first full season in the FIA World Endurance Championship, including an encouraging performance at Le Mans and a maiden podium (3rd) at Monza, and having spent much of the opening race of the 2024 season at the front in Losail, the PEUGEOT 9X8 has been fitted with several substantial upgrades as it looks to play a leading role this year in what is set to be an incredibly competitive Hypercar class featuring nine manufacturers and nineteen prototypes.

📷 © Luc Warnotte at Monza 2022. The first race of the 9X8 at Monza saw the two Peugeot several times in the garage during the race with #94 ending 25 laps behind the winning Alpine A480 and #93 abandoning at mid-race.

In its initial version, the PEUGEOT 9X8 was designed using a set of specifications that met the technical regulations drawn up in 2020/2021. However, between the design phase of the car and its competitive bow in the summer of 2022, the regulations changed, opening up the potential for improving performance in certain areas. Some design settings were therefore revised in order to maximise their potential and meet the ambitious targets set by Team Peugeot TotalEnergies.

📷 © Top: Luc Warnotte at Monza 2022 and Qatar 2024; BOTTOM: Courtesy of Peugeot Sport.

“We made choices that are no longer the right ones now and this difference in performance was not sufficiently offset by the BOP (Balance of Performance) in 2023,” explained Olivier Jansonnie, Peugeot Sport Technical Director. “The idea was therefore to go back to a car design that is similar that of our rivals car design, so that it would then be given equivalent treatment by the BOP. This is why we decided to drop the use of identical 31/31cm tyre widths on all the wheels, choosing to fit 29cm tyres at the front and 34cm tyres at the rear. Strictly speaking, it’s not a new car, as it has the same chassis, but there are a lot of upgrades. For the tyres to work effectively, we had to alter the centre of gravity of the PEUGEOT 9X8, which meant moving certain components and working making others lighter. And in order to have a better aerodynamic balance, we also had to look at redistributing the aerodynamic loads, which resulted in us redesigning approximately 90% of the bodywork components, most notably adding the rear wing. As well as all this, we decided to use this new homologation to add some reliability and performance upgrades to give us the best opportunities in the championship.”

The decision was taken in March 2023 to introduce some radical upgrades to the car for the 2024 season. Everyone at Peugeot Sport worked tirelessly to redesign the car at the same time as taking part in the 2023 WEC campaign. “It was a project within a project, which increased the team’s workload substantially,” continued Olivier Jansonnie. “But we were able to rely on the unwavering commitment of Team Peugeot TotalEnergies and we’re now really looking forward to showing off the result of their hard work. The target is clearly to get back among the frontrunners, fight regularly for podiums and even challenge for race wins.”

These upgrades also provided an opportunity to pursue the working relationship begun four years ago with Peugeot Sport: “After an elegant, understated design to mark PEUGEOT’s return to Endurance racing in 2022, then the 2023 livery produced by the visual artist Demsky, celebrating both the Centenary of the 24 Hours of Le Mans and the 30th anniversary of PEUGEOTt’s one-two-three at Le Mans, this time we came up with a design that deploys the ‘lion head’ in different scales,” detailed Matthias Hossann, PEUGEOT Brand Design Director. ”This graphic design, symbolising a ‘pack of lions’, conveys the sense of collective that reflects the values of Endurance racing perfectly.

📷 Courtesy of Peugeot Sport. The new 9X8

We wanted to highlight this team spirit and the wealth of talent in the team. The design is produced in different sizes and different colours taken from the Peugeot Sport colour chart, including black, grey, white and kryptonite. This theme is equally deployed on the lifestyle merchandising products developed by PEUGEOT’s graphic design team.”

After making its final appearance at the Qatar 1812km, the opening round of the 2024 FIA World Endurance Championship – which confirmed the progress made by Team Peugeot TotalEnergies – the 2023 version of the PEUGEOT 9X8 is now set to make way for the 2024 version at the 6 Hours of Imola, round two of the FIA WEC season, on 21 April. It was, of course, at Imola’s Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari that PEUGEOT scored a stunning one-two finish back in 2011. Source: Peugeot Sport

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