PIKES PEAK (TESTS 2 / 14-16 JUNE)
Sébastien Loeb and the 208 T16 Pikes Peak are ready to take on one of motorsport’s biggest challenges, after three days of testing in Colorado. |
An important item on the test agenda was therefore suspension and dampers. The team Peugeot Sport tried out different suspension set-ups to find the best overall compromise for all the different surfaces that make up the 20 kilometres and 156 neck-snapping corners. At the bottom, the surface is fast and flowing. But at the top the final two kilometres are bumpy and rutted. The car – like its driver – has to work well everywhere. After three days of hard work, Peugeot Sport’s project chief Jean-Christophe Pallier declared himself happy with the progress made. “The most important thing is that we’ve had reliability and we didn’t actually change much on the car in terms of set-up,” he reported. “It shows that we started from a good base. Of course the feedback we’ve had from Sebastien has been excellent in terms of pointing out a few ideas as to how we can improve further.” The 208 T16 Pikes Peak will now be stripped down and re-built completely before the final tests and qualifying for the ‘Race to the Clouds’ on Sunday June 30. Sébastien Loeb is off home for five days… before the action starts up all over again. |