At the end of June Peugeot’s new factory World Endurance Championship (WEC) team was making final preparations to its brand new Hypercar for its long awaited debut in the Six Hour race at Monza, Italy on July 8-10. The team started testing the 9X8 at a Peugeot proving ground in December 2021 and then moved to the Aragon circuit in mid-January. Since then it has foregone 2022 WEC events including Le Mans as the car has to be homologated to race and that process freezes its technical characteristics until 2025.
Over 10,000 km of track testing was clocked up ahead of the homologation necessary for the Monza debut. The 2022 Hypercars are subject to a Balance of Performance (BoP) that embraces minimum car weight, power deployment and the maximum energy that can be deployed on each stint. The output of the internal combustion engine is defined by the organiser as a mandatory power curve, conformity to which is controlled via real time data logging using driveshaft torque sensors.
The car-specific BoP power curve has a high of around 520 kW, although it is subject to regular review by the organiser. At the same time the electrical power output is capped at 200 kW and this can only be deployed at speeds above 120 kph. When it is deployed the output of the internal combustion engine is automatically reduced by 200 kW to maintain the overall permitted maximum power.
Development of the 9X8 has been headed by Peugeot Sport technical director Olivier Jansonnie with Francois Coudrain as powertrain director. At its heart is a 90 degree bank angle V6 twin turbo developed in house by Peugeot Sport, which started dyno testing in March 2021. Mid mounted, this drives the rear wheels via a seven-speed sequential gearbox. It is augmented by a front mounted electric motor/ generator that drives through the front wheels. The electrical side includes a high power density, 900 volt battery developed in conjunction with Saft, a subsidiary of TotalEnergies.
The Peugeot 9X8 has a brand new hybrid powertrain
Interestingly in April Peugeot Sport signed a multi-year partnership with Capgemini to exploit the latter’s data and artificial intelligence expertise. It was noted that once the specification of the 9X8’s hardware is frozen by homologation software development becomes a key performance factor.
Peugeot Sport Director Jean-Marc Finot said, “Every metre our hybrid Hypercar covers on the racetrack or on the simulator will be logged, sorted and analysed using Capgemini’s ultra-sophisticated tools in addition to the data collected by the team itself.
“The specific calculations ability, algorithms and artificial intelligence brought to the table by Capgemini will … help deliver increasingly precise energy management under acceleration and during the regeneration phase, two vital performance and reliability-related parameters.”