FEATURE PEUGEOT 908
Cockpit ergonomics have been improved and the air-conditioning system is gone, thanks to a change in regulations regarding cockpit temperatures.
everything we have learned from the 908, the Aston Martin and the Audi!’ The scoops over the rear wheels are
now cooling the brakes, while the engine scoop is placed over the cockpit and leads to the fin that runs from the cockpit to the rear wing. The fuel tanks are smaller this year – down from 81 to just 65 litres for diesel and from 90 litres to 75 for petrol cars. Hybrid cars get a further reduction of two litres per tank, and clearly these size reductions require new cars to optimise the space available.
Testing times With the focus on aerodynamic solutions, Peugeot has pushed the boundaries, and in pre-season testing suffered large accidents. Ironic, as in the past it has
“The weakness of the (new) 908 is its operating window, which is narrower than the old car”
been Audi that crashed as it sought to catch up with the old 908. Marc Gene was the first, in November at Aragon in Spain, destroying one of the new cars, while Nicolas Minassian crashed at the Paul Ricard circuit in February. ‘In Le Castellet, we were testing a new aerodynamic package, and we didn’t do all the set up that we needed for that,’ says Peugeot’s director of sport, Olivier
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www.racecarengineering.com • August 2011
The new 908 ran into problems at Sebring, with a crash delaying one car, and a turbocharger problem the other. Peugeot has since developed the aerodynamics, introducing a new nose structure at the Le Mans test day in April
Quesnel. The fact that the cars took off in these
crashes re-opened the whole debate on Prototypes but, despite initially claiming that it would hand its documents over to the FIA and to the ACO, the fact that the company hasn’t done so suggests it has found the problem and fixed it itself. Peugeot Sport has worked on the set-up to avoid such accidents like Minassian’s to happen again.
Always a danger However, with nine square metres of floor, there is always a danger of an LMP1 car taking flight, but Peugeot and other manufacturers are working with the ACO and the FIA to reduce the risks in the 2014 regulations. As one engineer put it, ‘LMP cars are lighter and have a larger area than a light aircraft, and travel faster than the aircraft at take-off speed…’ Peugeot, it seems, has pushed the
aerodynamics further than anyone else with this car, and has found the limit. Certainly, it appears that the finished
product is an excellent car. Not only does it have the power and the balance to race well on circuits all over the world, it also appears to be kinder to its tyres. In the heat at Spa in May, the 908 appeared to have the upper hand over Audi in terms of tyre management, with Pedro Lamy able to triple-stint his Michelin rubber mid- race. This is a trick that the Audi couldn’t match at the Belgian race. Audi was also slightly concerned that the Peugeots were faster in their second
stint on the same tyres than they were in the first.
Conventional suspension Little is known about the Peugeot’s suspension system, but it appears that the layout is conventional, with a third spring and torsion bars. The old 908 could run a set up soft enough to attack the kerbs in a way that the R10 and R15 could not, and the new 908 continues that trend Famin, at least, appears to be
comfortable with the way the car handles but, understandably, has reservations about reliability. ‘My main worry is not performance,’ he says. ‘You ask the drivers, they are confident of performance and so am I. The problem is reliability. We have to solve all the problems that we have discovered, and solve all the problems that we have yet to discover. We planned seven 24-hour tests before Le Mans, but every year we go to Le Mans, we find new problems.’ ‘One day you will see a car that is doing
badly, but it will be doing something different to the other cars,’ says driver, Nicolas Minassian. ‘We are working hard and developing faster. The window is narrower, but it is not too narrow. The car is a good car, but it needs to be set up.’ ‘It is a consequence of technical choices
and we would not be surprised if Audi had the same problems,’ says Famin. ‘During the race at Spa, the Audi was not working so well. It is down to the concept of the car. We have to work closely with Michelin in the future. We have to adapt the car to
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