The car Peugeot will use for its return to Pikes Peak has been revealed – and it’ll be driven by
Sebastien Loeb
Rear wing? Adequate, one would hope
The 208 T16, as it’ll be known, will be specially prepared by Peugeot Sport and sponsored by Red Bull. Few further details about the car have been revealed as yet, though the pictures suggest all-carbon bodywork with a lairy aero kit.
Par for the course
for Pikes Peak, then, although it’d be stretching the term to try and call it ‘the usual’. We’ve no idea what’s under the bonnet, though the side-exit exhaust and heavy-duty motorsport tech inside suggests it’ll be rather more exuberant than the standard
208 GTI
. And will be running in the 'unlimited' class for cars with a minimum - minimum - of 1,000hp.
The campaign will hark back to Peugeot’s back-to-back successes in 1988 and 1989, when Ari Vatanen and Robby Unser respectively drove 405 T16s to victory in the event. Nine-time WRC champion Loeb will look to repeat that success as one of his alternative motorsport ventures during his semi-retirement year (unless Citroen recall him to help them out later in the year, of course).
Vid shows Loeb being fitted up for new T16
And while the loose surface might be familiar, he’ll have to have a head for heights; the Pikes Peak course features a staggering 1,500-metre change in elevation throughout the course of its 12.4-mile distance, finishing at an altitude of 4,301 metres, and with no less than 156 corners along the way. Blimey.
And if the pictures aren't enough for you, Red Bull's also released a rather snazzy video of the new T16, which you can see here.