With the legendary Pikes Peak International Hill race in Colorado coming up on June 20, the Peugeot Sport team have been testing out this beast of a Peugeot 208 T16 on the infamous Mont Ventoux in Provence over the past few days.
The 875hp machine which weighs a paltry 875kg, has been put through its paces by record breaking 9-time world rally champion Sebastien Loeb who will also take it into the Pikes Peak race, which sees competing cars time trial their way up the 156-turn, 12 mile course, which climbs 14,110 feet into the skies above Colorado Springs. Not surpising that it's nicknamed The Race To The Clouds.
What does the normally diffident Loeb think of the car which was purpose-built for the Pike Peak race? "For sure it’s special," he told Red Bull. "It’s really for me the most impressive car I drove. More like an F1 car…the power that you can feel. The two cars which are the most impressive on the power side are this car and the Formula One."
Given the 3.2-litre twin-turbo V6 can travel from 0-62mph in 1.8 seconds (and 0-149mph in 7 seconds), you can start to understand why it's starting as one of the race favourites.
It's now 25 years since Ari Vatanen's record-breaking run up the mountain in a Peugeot 405 back in 1988, captured in this award-winning (and breath-taking) short film 'Climb Dance'. Put your headphones on and see for yourself what the drivers are up against - it's a belter:
