Peugeot Sport has baptized its 208 T16 on the Pikes Peak tarmac, where the 875-hp beast has completed its first practice outing. With Sébastien Loeb behind the wheel, the Peugeot 208 T16 looked at home on the Pikes Peak course, partly because its racing colors remind of the legendary Pikes Peak-winning Peugeot 405 T16.
Peugeot says the result of the team’s first weekend of practice was “particularly encouraging,” with the squad taking a one-step-at-a-time approach. The first step was to put the engine through its paces on a test bench in Colorado Springs to see how it performed at altitude.
After that, Peugeot did a shakedown run with the car at the town’s nearby “Speedway” in order to sign off the changes that have been made since the car’s final test run in France. During this time, Sébastien Loeb was able to learn the 156 turns of the course, assisted by his co-driver, Daniel Elena.
The Peugeot 208 T16 did nine climbs so that Loeb was able to associate each corner with a precise mental “pace note”. “I feel very confident with the car. That’s a reassuring start, if only because of the speeds we get up to here. We are already getting close to the limit in many places. All we need to do now is make some detail changes and we will be ready for the Big Day!” said Sébastien Loeb.
“The car’s potential is borne out by the fact that we posted the fastest time on each run. That said, last year’s winner Rhys Millen, who is something of a benchmark here, it still familiarising himself with his own car and there was very little real opposition,” said Peugeot Sport’s Director Bruno Famin.
Peugeot Sport will have three more official practice sessions at the end of this week. Scroll down to see the Peugeot’s first Pikes Peak test in the video below.
By Dan Mihalascu
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