Having joined Audi in providing that diesels can dominate at Le Mans, Peugeot now wants to show that hybrids -- yes, hybrids -- can compete at the top tier of motor sports. The French automaker has unveiled a gas diesel-electric racer it plans to run in next year's Le Mans series.
The 908 HDi FAP "Hy" made a few laps at Britain's famed Silverstone racetrack last weekend before the final round of the Le Mans series, running a kinetic energy recovery system similar to what we'll see in Formula 1 cars next year. The 908 "Hy" works a lot like a Prius on steroids, with a lithium-ion battery and an 80-horsepower electric motor that can propel the car on electricity alone or provide added power at high speed or during passing moves.
Peugeot says the car is ready to race, but the question remains whether it will be allowed to.
The Automobile Club de l'Ouest -- which sets the rules governing the Le Mans series -- has announced a slew of rule changes meant to eliminate the advantages diesels have enjoyed over gasoline racers, but it's done nothing to allow hybrids onto the grid for 2009. But Peugeot will not be deterred and, according to Britain's Car magazine, says it'll run the 908 Hy as a "Double-Oh" non-competitor so it can continue developing the technology.
"As a car manufacturer, we can use motor sport as a research and development tool for the Peugeot brand as a whole," says Michel Barge, director of Peugeot Sport. "Running a hybrid car in endurance racing would give Peugeot the chance to gain extremely valuable experience that would benefit the development of production cars.
The hybrid system has three main components -- a 60 kilowatt (80 horsepower) gear-driven electric motor in place of a conventional starter motor, 600 lithium-ion battery cells divided into 10 packs and a power converter just behind the front left wing to control the flow of energy between the batteries and the electric motor.
Peugeot says the 908 Hy can run in three modes: full electric at low speeds (as in pit lane), gasoline diesel engine only or a combination of the two. Regenerative braking captures energy that would otherwise be lost as heat during braking and stores it in the battery packs. Peugeot says the system will recover enough energy to provide an extra 80 horsepower for 20 to 30 seconds per lap. The stored energy can be automatically deployed under acceleration, or used at the driver's discretion when, say, passing another car. If not used for additional acceleration, the recovered energy can simply augment the gasoline engine, cutting fuel consumption 3 to 5 percent -- no small advantage in a 12- or 24-hour endurance race.
Peugeot isn't the first to put a hybrid drivetrain in an endurance racer. Earlier this year, the Gumpert put a hybrid drivetrain in one of its Apollo supercars and entered it in the 24 Hours of Nurburgring, where its fastest lap was 9 minutes 24.885 seconds.
UPDATE : Corsa Motorsports and Zytek are working on a hybrid racer for the American Le Mans Series, and as reader Moose notes in the comments below, American boutique automaker Panoz built the Q9 hybrid to run in the series in the late 1990s.
Photos by Peugeot.
The hybrid system is comprised of a gasoline diesel engine (blue) and transmission (gold) coupled to a 60 kilowatt gear-driven electric motor (green). Energy recovered during braking is stored in 10 lithium-ion battery packs (gray). A power converter (black) controls the flow of energy between the batteries and the motor.
