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Home , 2006 12 Hours of Sebring, 2006 Petit Le Mans, 2007 1000 km of Monza, 2009 12 Hours of Sebring, 2010 1000 km of Zhuhai, 2012 12 Hours of Sebring

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908 09 908 - The History

t was a classic period of endurance racing that will the 908 included stars from the world of sportscar be forever embedded in the minds of anyone who racing and beyond. Formula 1 world champion Jacques were there – or just watched on TV! The Villeneuve was the marque’s big-name signing at the Iversus battles over the five seasons from 2007 start of the programme in 2007. He would be joined by through 2011 produced some incredible racing across fellow ex-F1 driver Marc Gene in a roster that included multiple continents and two of the closest finishes ever multiple Champ Car title winner Sebastien Bourdais at the 24 Hours. and established sportscar names , Peugeot went head to head with a marque that had Stephane Sarrazin and . , made the top prototype division its own over the Alex Wurz, David and , all first half of the 2000s. Two iterations of the French drivers who had raced in F1, would subsequently race manufacturer’s 908 LMP1 turbodiesel would take on the 908 turbodiesels. a series of machines built by its German rival in the Peugeot had announced to the world in June 2005 world’s great sportscar events – and more often than that it would end its absence from top-flight sportscar not it was the French racing two summers car that came out on later. It would take top. advantage of new rules The vital statistics allowing turbodiesel of the 908 make for technology to return impressive reading. to Le Mans for the The first time since 1993, started 35 races and the year of its second won 25 of them. victory in the French That tally included endurance classic with victories in the three the 905 Group C car. big endurance classics The in-house Peugeot for which the car was eligible – Le Mans, the Sebring Sport motorsport department in Velizy on the outskirts 12 Hours and the 1000-mile event at of Paris had wanted to wait until 2008 before going . There were titles racked up along the racing, but senior management decreed that the project way, too. Peugeot collected championship silverware in be brought forward a year. the Le Mans Series and the Intercontinental Le Mans Work on a car that would become known as the 908 Cup, the forerunner of the FIA World Endurance HDi FAP - the FAP acronym referring to Peugeot’s Championship. particulate filter technology – started in January The list of drivers who would grace the cockpit of 2006 under the leadership of technical director Bruno Famin. He assembled a team that programme. included designer Paolo Cantone, one of the key figures Peugeot won the traditional Spa 1000Km warm-up in the 905 project. race ahead of Le Mans in 2010 and was on course for The V12-powered car was up and running inside a a second consecutive victory when an engine problem year, turning a wheel for the first time in December. It afflicted three of the four cars entered for the big race. went on to make a successful race debut at the Monza A switch from steel to titanium conrods had been made 1000Km Le Mans Series event in April 2007, the car in the search of power. The new part, validated over the shared by Minassian and Gene winning by more than a course of rigorous test programme, failed courtesy of lap. the high percentage of full-throttle running at Le Mans. It was a successful New regulations first season for the meant a new car and Peugeot P1 design engine for 2011. The and the Velizy-based regulations restricted factory team. The turbodiesels to a 908 was unbeaten maximum of 3.7 over the six-race litres and Peugeot LMS series, Sarrazin produced a V8 and Lamy claiming engine to replace the title. Sarrazin the V12. Initially would also take pole dubbed the 90X, the position at Le Mans – car became known the first of a sequence simply as the 908 for of three – and the marketing reasons. best of the 908s Audi had the edge finished in second in performance at Le position behind the Mans in 2011 with its winning Audi in the French manufacturer’s first year new R18 TDI, but Peugeot went a lap further on a tank back at the French enduro. of fuel. Once again, the race boiled down into a straight Peugeot and Audi went head-to-head in the fight between one car from each manufacturer. Peugeot LMS in 2008. The 908 triumphed over the German ended up second again, this time by just 13.8 seconds. manufacturer’s R10 TDIs in four of the five races, but Le Mans was the only the second time the latest Peugeot ultimately lost out in the drivers’ standings to 908 failed to win, though honours at the opening an Audi driver pairing who failed to notch up a race round of the first full season of the ILMC had gone to victory. a first-generation car run on a semi-assisted basis by Peugeot also came out second best at Le Mans after the French team. The factory would leading for much of the way in one of the most thrilling dominate the remainder of the season on the way to the editions of the great race, one immortalised in the film manufacturers’ title. Truth in 24. The destiny of the winner’s laurels was The ILMC paved the way for a return of world only settled in the final hour of the race, the 908 driven championship long-distance sportscar racing for the by Minassian, Gene and Villeneuve ending up a close first time since 1992 with the rebirth of the WEC in second in the rain-affected race. 2012. Peugeot would have been a defending champion Peugeot made amends one year later, Gene, Wurz of sorts, given its victory in the Sportscar World and leading home a one-two at the Championship 20 years before. end of a race in which the 908 dominated Audi’s new Peugeot was due to go up against Audi with a new R15 TDI. The winning 908 finished a lap up on the hybrid LMP1 car to be known as the 908 HYbrid4 in sister machine shared by Sarrazin, Bourdais and Franck deference to the front-axle energy-retrieval system. Montagny, while the best of the German cars was a Initial testing took place with reworked 2011 cars, but further five laps down. the axe fell on the programme in face of mounting loses Peugeot Sport had made a first Stateside trip in for the French car maker early in 2012. The definitive March 2008 to field a solo car at the Sebring 12 Hours HYbrid4 would turn a wheel only once. as part of its preparations for Le Mans. Racing in the Peugeot might have won Le Mans just once over twin enduros at Sebring and the life of the 908 project, but the when factory cars Road Atlanta would become part of its programme fielded by the French manufacturer went up against from then on. The 908 scored a first victory on works-run , the stats are firmly in favour of the American asphalt at Petit in 2009. Peugeot would be 908. It won no fewer than 16 of the 25 head-to-head unbeaten in the USA for the remainder of the sportscar confrontations. 908 - Chassis 09

eugeot enjoyed phenomenal success on its powered turbo diesel. There were no Audis present at Stateside travels with the 908 turbo diesels - once the 12 Hours for the first time in the history of short the French manufacturer got a first victory under history of the ALMS, but the pair of 908s put on a no- Pits belt, it would go undefeated on American asphalt holds-barred race at the front of a field that included a until the end of the program. But only one its LMP1 factory entry from Racing. chassis, 908 HDi FAP #09, can claim to have won both The balance between the two the Sebring 12 Hours and the Petit Le Mans 1000-mile entries ebbed and flowed through the race, before the enduro at Road Atlanta, the two big enduros open to pendulum swung in favour of 908 HDi FAP chassis #09 the car in the USA. driven by ex-Formula 1 drivers Alex Wurz, Anthony Arch-rival Audi Davidson and Marc had made the 12- Gene – who had hour enduro on taken pole position – the bumpy Sebring in the ninth hour. International Raceway an Davidson had essential part of trailed Pedro Lamy its preparations by a shade over six for the Le Mans seconds when the 24 Hours. The Portuguese driver in-house Peugeot sustained a puncture Sport team took with a lap of stint still a leaf out of its to run. That meant book, sending a that the leading solo 908 LMP1 car Peugeot was given a to the 2008 race. new set of The Florida enduro subsequently would become the tyres when Lamy brought the car he shared with starting point of the team’s season, while the season- Nicolas Minassian and Sebastien Bourdais into the pits. closing round of the American Le Mans Series at Road Davidson, however, took fuel only and moved into the Atlanta also became an integral part of its campaigns. lead. Peugeot began its winning run in the USA at Petit in A safety car subsequently bunched up the field, after 2009, scoring a one-two ahead of a pair of Audis. Five which the race turned into a straight fight between months later it notched up a maiden Sebring victory at Wurz and Minassian and then Wurz and Bourdais. the third time of asking with the first-generation, V12- Wurz recalls that he was finally coming to grips with around the 8.47-mile . The two other factory Peugeots had already retired from the race when Wurz made it back onto the same lap as the leading Audi. And there were still three hours of the race still to go... Three laps later, smoke trailing from the right-hand exhaust signalled the end of Peugeot’s hopes of retaining the Le Mans crown Wurz and Gene had claimed with David Brabham 12 months previously. Two of the three factory cars, as well as the works- assisted ORECA 908, retired from the race with engine failures after a switch from steel to titanium conrods in the search of more power. A plan for Peugeot to split its strategy between the unique characteristics of 3.74-mile airfield on his the two engine specifications was first race appearance at the track. thwarted by supply issues. “I was on the back foot at the beginning of the The second win in one of the blue riband enduros week because I was up against drivers who’d all done for 908 HDi FAP chassis #09 came at Petit Le Mans. the race before,” recalls Wurz, who’d notched up the This time the car was driven by Lamy, Stephane second Le Mans 24 Hours victory of his career the Sarrazin and . They triumphed in previous June with Peugeot. “Then I suddenly learnt another internecine Peugeot affair against the Sebring- how to drive at Sebring. I didn’t care about the traffic winning line-up. – I wanted the win so much that I went banzai. Victory in the 1000-mile race at Road Atlanta could “I think my pace caught the others by surprise. We have gone to either of the pair of French cars on the definitely had the upper hand over those last three grid once the challenge from Audi had waned. The stints.” two French cars were again closely matched, but Wurz was able to pull a gap on Bourdais through the winning car was the beneficiary of team tactic the penultimate stint. The seven-second advantage he designed to thwart any Audi comeback. held at its end was enough to ensure he got out of the Peugeot opted to pit Montagny during a safety car pits after the final round of stops in the lead. It was of and leave Wurz out on track after the Audi driven by little consequence that the chasing Frenchman spun as , Allan McNish and he rejoined after his stop. The race was already in the lost time early in the seventh hour. The second- pocket of Wurz, Davidson and Gene. placed car could never make up the ground lost by “It was a big internal fight for glory inside the team,” subsequently pitting while the race was green. says Wurz. “In many ways the battle was a lot more Petit was the second round of the inaugural intense than a other sports-car races I’ve won because Intercontinental Le Mans Cup organised by the the two crews had exactly the same weapon.” Automobile Club de l’Ouest at Le Mans. Three rounds The winning crew from Sebring were back in 908 counted to the pilot running of a new series that chassis #09 for the Spa 1000Km Le Mans Series event would encompass seven events in 2011 and then in May, though an off by Gene that left him stuck morph into the FIA World Endurance Championship in the gravel meant they could finish no better than in 2012. Chassis #09 claimed fourth place at the fourth on a day that the 908 had a clear edge over Zhuhai finale in China with Bourdais and Simon Audi’s latest R15-plus TDI. Pagenaud driving as Peugeot secured the title The French car was in the ascendancy at Le Mans, manufacturers. too. Chassis #09 was leading the race in Gene’s hands The career of 908 HDi FAP chassis #9 ended after early in the seventh hour when alternator failure a solo season with the arrival of Peugeot’s second- resulted in a three-lap delay in the pits. But the generation turbo diesel for 2011. It claimed victories Spaniard and team-mates Wurz and Davidson weren’t from two of its five starts, but most significantly it out of it courtesy of Peugeot’s performance advantage notched up those wins in two of the biggest sports-car races in the world. IMPORTANT DATA