http://www.topgear.com/content/news/stories/1581/
Spark Pug
This, ladies and gentlefolks, is Peugeot's new Le Mans racer. Click on the video link above to watch arguably the most significant new racer of the year in action.
The 908 HDi FAP is significant because it represents not only Peugeot's return to the legendary Le Mans race, but to frontline motorsports in general.
Peugeot's works WRC effort is dead, so the next few years are all about going longer and faster at the world's most famous endurance race.
And going longer and faster means taking on the inexorable motorsport force that is Audi - and taking them on with a diesel.
You wouldn't know it from watching the video but like Audi's R10, Peugeot's latest Le Mans challenger burns the oily, smelly stuff.
Thanks to some trick HDi common-rail, direct-injection technology and a comprehensive particulate filter system, the 908 charges around with barely a puff of smoke from its exhausts. Weird.
Particulate filters? Common-rail diesel engines? Yes, the urge to yawn is great but worth stifling because unlike Audi's R10, the Peugeot is powered by a comparatively wide-angle 5.5-litre V12 with twin turbos.
And as any motorsport nut knows, V12 racing engines rule. Especially one with 700bhp and a gravity-warping 885lb ft of torque.
Peugeot is convinced that this all-aluminium 100-degree V12 will generate less vibration than its V10 rival from Audi, thus benefiting reliability.
Saying that, the Audi R10 endurance racer won the not only Le Mans in 2006, but also the notoriously tough Sebring 12-hours... with a V10 diesel.
Turn the speakers up when you watch the vid and listen to that V12 engine. It's genuinely melodic. Not loud but there's sweet music coming from the rear of the big Pug.
And just look at it.
If you put an Apache gunship, an F1-car and a Sentinel machine from the Matrix in room with a comfy bed and some Barry White on the stereo, this would be the result.
It's a fabulous-looking machine; let's hope Peugeot doesn't ruin it with a disgraceful livery...
The closed body style meets new Le Mans regulations and has created an extremely narrow canopy. It'll be interesting to listen to the driver quotes about this after the race because, given the choice, drivers prefer the feeling and easy-access/egress of an open-top racer.
Closed-cockpit race cars tend to fog up in the rain too, and rain isn't that unusual at Le Mans in mid-June...
There's an aggressive driver line-up, with Pedro Lamy, Marc Gene and '97 F1 champ Jacques Villeneuve sharing a distinctly F1-themed car, and Sébastien Bourdais, Stéphane Sarrazin and Nicolas Minassian driving the second 908 challenger.
Villeneuve's appointment has grabbed all the headlines, because the 36-year-old Canadian has already won the F1 championship and the Indy 500, so a win at Le Mans will give him an unofficial Triple Crown of victories at the highest level of circuit racing.
Jacques has always demanded a specific car set-up to suit his driving style, and is already commenting on the "new experience of finding a compromise on the set-up for multiple drivers".
It'll be interesting to see which of the two 908 squads come out on top - the 'F1' crew or the more experienced team of Bourdais, Sarrizin and Minassian.
Between them, the 'BSM' squad has competed in 15 Le Mans.
The 'F1' boys? Five for Lamy, but neither JV nor Gene has raced the famous 24-hours before.
The Peugeot vs. Audi battle at Le Mans this year will be cracking. Peugeot has won the race in the past ('92 and '93) and will be making every effort to win this year.
See you there.