An unusual wing-less tail and distinctive claw-mark DRLs ensured Peugeot’s 9X8 stood out from the LMDh crowd at this month’s Le Mans 24 Hours, but just imagine how much it would stand out from a sea of 208s and 308s in Paris traffic if Peugeot ever decided to turn it into a road car. CEO Linda Jackson isn’t ruling it out.
Okay she’s not exactly ruling it in, either. Asked by journalists whether Peugeot had ever considered turning the 9X8 racer into a road-going hypercar to rival the Aston Martin Valkyrie, Jackson replied “No. It’s not in the pipeline.” But just when it looked like the door was closing, she jammed her foot in, hinting that maybe that “No” wasn’t so firm after all.
“If you’re going to come with a blank cheque we can always talk,” she told Top Gear. “It’s one of these things where if somebody were to come along then why not? But nobody has come along yet. Maybe I’ve opened the door now? We might have somebody come along, you never know.”
Related: Peugeot Reveals Competition Spec 9X8 Endurance Racer
Under original proposals that laid out the rules for the current crop of top-tier Le Mans cars, it briefly looked as if all competing cars would have had to be homologated by road cars. But that never happened, no doubt to the relief of automakers who were spared millions of dollars and thousands of man hours in development work.
A road-going hypercar would be an odd fit for a brand like Peugeot that’s best known for its affordable family cars and superminis, and the 9X8’s less than stellar finish at this years Le Mans 24H, where the cars came home 8th and 27th, wouldn’t have us rushing to push a blank check into Jackson’s hand. But it does look pretty fantastic, and if we were already rich enough to own every other hypercar available, as your average billionaire is, maybe funding a one-off 9X8 road car would be appealing.
The 9X8 racer is powered by a hybrid-assisted 2.6-liter V6 that generates a total system output of 939 hp (952 PS), but freed from FIA regulations we’re sure Peugeot could liberate a few more horses. Do you love Peugeot and the 9X8 enough to write that check if you were sitting on a fortune?