Three questions about the 208 GTI Peugeot Sport

Designed in the Vélizy workshops, the 208 GTi Peugeot Sport displays its strengths at the dawn of the 2013 VLN championship. With the aim of the 24 2013H Nürburgring on May 19 and 20 as part of the 208 GTi Racing Experience project, with eight European drivers recruited on the internet: Dominik Peitz (21 years old, Germany) , Vincent Radermecker (45 years old, Belgium), Gonzalo Martin de Andres (31 years old, Spain), Mathieu Sentis (27 years old, France), Giacomo Ricci (27 years old, Italy), Christiaan Frankenhout (31 years old, Netherlands), Johnny Niederhauser (41 years old, Switzerland), Bradley Philpot (27 years old, United Kingdom).

If the merciless Nordschleife circuit is not unknown to all these men, Christiaan Frankenhout having even taken third place overall during the German double round of the clock in 2012, all these drivers will participate in the VLN Test Day (5 and April 6, 2013), then at VLN 2 (April 13) and VLN 3 (April 27) with four 208 Racing Cups developed and manufactured by Peugeot Sport for training. The ambition being the following: to obtain victory in the SP2T category (1600cm3 turbo petrol) during the German event.

Florent Meilhaud, engineer responsible for development of the 208 GTi Peugeot Sport, gives his impressions of the new car from Vélizy:

What was your first vision of this 208 GTi Peugeot Sport?
“Personally, when I hear GTi, it reminds me of the 205 which represents a light car, mixing performance and driving pleasure. The production 208 GTi is in this lineage and I therefore wanted to transpose this concept to the competition version. I'm going to make sure it lives up to the GTi acronym. It is a source of pride but also a pressure to work on such a project with such a short deadline. The whole team is extremely motivated.”

What are your main areas of work?
“We work in all areas of the game. But we pay particular attention to three major areas. First of all, reliability. This is one of the keys to endurance. Then, the suspensions. They are extremely in demand on this hilly, bumpy circuit which involves a series of changes in surface. Finally, the last essential point, weight which is a performance factor.”

What will the 208 GTi Peugeot Sport be like to drive?
“The drivers have very different experiences. One of the objectives is therefore to design a car that is healthy, pleasant to drive, easy to handle and therefore easy to compensate for in the event of a loss of grip. It must also physically protect the drivers, which is essential for long races with stints of up to 2 hours. It thus has driving comfort with paddles on the steering wheel to change gears, and a maximum of controls within easy reach to ensure the driver's concentration throughout his stint.