Peugeot Sport: PH Meets

The guys behind the upcoming RCZ R on Pikes Peak, hot hatches and why motorsport still matters

A rather nondescript industrial unit in a Paris suburb isn't the most inspiring location for Peugeot Sport.

It's what inside that counts!

But then look at what Peugeot's motorsport division has produced recently. The Pikes Peak victory is of course the dominant story, but there's also been the class victory at the N24, a pan-European one-make series for the RCZ Cup and further plans for the 208 in rallying too.

It's encouraging to see motorsport still being prioritised as an image builder for road cars, especially given the current economic climate. Bruno Famin, Peugeot Sport's Director, is only too keen to point this out when we discuss the Loeb Pikes Peak triumph. He describes it as a 'relatively low investment project', completed in four months, but one with more than commensurate rewards given the media coverage. He was particularly proud of the reaction within Peugeot and from the public; as a reminder that Peugeot still cares about motorsport, the Pikes Peak campaign more than met its brief.

His challenge now is to find another temporary project to match its success until the economic outlook brightens. He is quite frank in admitting that a VW-esque budget for something like a factory WRC campaign isn't there. Until then, this will have to stay as his Blackberry wallpaper.

Of course there's one of these in the car park

Cyrille Jourdan is the Technical Manager for the RCZ R, and exactly the kind of guy you would want in charge. When the popularity of Peugeot's Rallye models on PH is mentioned, he smiles: 'They are great cars', but concedes that making such raw hatches nowadays isn't feasible. He's keen on the 'light is right' adage though, and points us to the latest 308, around 140kg lighter than the old car.

Predictably, his enthusiasm for the RCZ R project is infectious. It was never actually part of the original RCZ project, instead an idea pitched to Peugeot from Peugeot Sport to exploit the latent potential in the car.

And when he mentions a race car philosophy around the development, you know that isn't just the PR message. For example, Alcon provides the brakes for the RCZ Cup car, so its tech is used on the road car. The engine has been proven at 250hp, giving them the confidence to run a road car at 270hp. It can apparently go further still, but not with the kind of reliability needed for a production model.

This was a success for Peugeot, so what's next?

We pushed Cyrille, but he remained adamant that the RCZ R is exactly how he wants it. He talks of a 'consistency' with the whole car, implying quite a methodical approach. Given the standard RCZ can occasionally feel rather unfinished and lacking cohesion, we hope this proves true.

With a 308 R concept revealed recently, we asked both Cyrille and Budar Pierre, the RCZ R Project Manager, about future prospects for the Peugeot R brand. They seem very keen to add performance models where possible but can't commit without Peugeot approval. Subtle attempts to discuss a 208 R or something motorsport-inspired receive rather ambiguous replies; 'why not?' appears to be the default answer. Surely that would be a better image builder than the larger 308? Let's see.

We're driving the RCZ R in November, which will put the claims of the Peugeot Sport staff to the test. If their confidence can manifest itself has some genuine ability, it promises to be the great fast Peugeot we've been waiting so long for.

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mrdemon

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