Stunning Peugeot 9X8 LMH hypercar hits the track

The final version of the Peugeot 9X8 race car that will contest the Le Mans Hypercar (LMH) class of the 2022 World Endurance Championship has been revealed at the racetrack for the first time.

And the stunning new French endurance racer may one day allow Peugeot to put a move on Porsche, McLaren, Ferrari and other electrified hypercar-makers with a street-legal production version available to the public.

The Peugeot 9X8 is powered by a mid-mounted 2.6-litre twin-turbo petrol V6 developing 500kW, paired with a front-mounted electric motor contributing an extra 200kW.

Due to class regulations, the monstrous powertrain is shackled to a maximum combined output of just 500kW, however, with a minimum weight of just over 1000kg, it will offer stratospheric performance – on either the track or road.

The FIA’s original LMH rules required teams to offer 20 homologated and road-legal versions of their Le Mans racers, not dissimilar to the old Group B rally regulations.

Now, however, LMH teams need only offer the public a vehicle featuring a similar powertrain concept to their endurance cars, which is something the French brand has already covered with the new Peugeot 3008 GT Sport and Peugeot 508 GT Sport plug-in hybrids.

So far only Glickenhaus is expected to offer a road-registerable version of its 007 racer, after Toyota late last year cancelled its plan to produce a street-legal version of its 2021 LeMans LMH-winning GR010 Hybrid racer as previewed by the GR Super Sport hypercar concept.

But Peugeot, which announced its LMH campaign back in 2019 and has a long and successful history in top-level endurance racing with its 905 and 908 prototypes claiming three Le Mans wins, could still offer a road-going 9X8 in the coming years.

For the first time, that could see it take the electrified hypercar fight up to Porsche, McLaren, Ferrari, Lotus and Rimac – all of which are poised to launch new flagship speed machines by the end of the decade.

Ferrari will also enter LMH in 2023, when the Le Mans Daytona hybrid (LMDh) class including Alpine, Audi, BMW, Cadillac and Porsche will join LMH as a top WEC category.

Peugeot has form here too; it’s been teasing the idea of a new French supercar/hypercar since the 1980s when it debuted the Peugeot Oxia, which would’ve challenged the fabled Ferrari F40 and Porsche 959.

The brand kept at it too with the reveal of the copper-garnished Peugeot Onyx back in 2012.

According to Peugeot 9X8 project technical director Olivier Jansonnie, the brand “is starting a new chapter in hybrid sports cars” as performance becomes “more electric and more virtuous without sacrificing anything in terms of competitiveness”.

“Endurance racing is based on rules that allow us to demonstrate Peugeot’s expertise across all electric power trains,” he said.

Whether or not Peugeot parent company Stellantis ultimately gives the green light to a road-going hypercar project remains to be seen, but such a move would throw the cat amongst the pigeons.

In the meantime, Peugeot Cars Australia is continuing to evaluate the Peugeot 508 Sport Engineered for our market.

For its LMH debut in 2022, Peugeot has signed up ex-Formula 1 drivers Paul Di Resta and Kevin Magnussen, and 2013 Le Mans winner Loic Duval, but will miss the first round of the WEC at Sebring in Florida on March 18.

So the 6 Hours of Spa on May 7 at Belgium's Spa-Francorchamps will be the Peugeot 9X8’s first race.