Tag Archives: peugeot

foto of the day: TS030.

Toyota has a monumental task this year at Le Mans—with a brand new Le Mans team and race car, trying to fill in the vacant shoes of Peugeot.  Audi are trying to surpass Ferrari on the all-time list of Le Mans victories, amidst the most dominant period of endurance racing ever seen by any marque this side of Porsche in the late 70s/early 80s.

I really miss Peugeot, however am also very pleased that Toyota have put their guts into building a race car that will most definitely be competitive.  In early practices, it has been reported that the TS030 was only a bit over 1 second slower than the R18 e-tron quattro—-and considering all of the madness which actually goes down in the race and the traffic issues; I’d say Audi definitely have some competition this year.

That being said…The TS030 is fantastic to look at, and nicely fills in the shoes of the missing Peugeot blue and white race cars with their new blue, white, and red livery!

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Need. More. Hot. Hatches.

The Citroen DS4 Racing is scheduled to be shown at the Geneva Auto Show.   There isn’t a week that goes by where I am NOT envious of my european friends and how they have such fantastic ‘hot’ hatchbacks to choose from and buy!!!  Americans simply do not understand hatchbacks; which is why we have 5 on the market here or something like that.   What choices do we have in the US for ‘hot hatches’? VW GTI, Audi A3, Ford Focus, Mini Cooper, and some weird 3-door Hyundai Velociraptor Roster Foster Pentacoster….

For the love of god, SOMEBODY buy PSA (Peugeot/Citroen/etc) and bring us these french hot hatches!  Ford maybe?  Buy PSA! Nissan, stop diddling around with the miserable current lineup you have in the US and bring us some Renault Meganes and Clios! VW, hurry up and buy Alfa Romeo so you can bring us theirs as well as the Audi A1, S3, RS3!  Suzuki, bring us the Swift!

oh and the Citroen DS4 looks pretty damn wicked from where i’m seeing it. 1.6 liter 256hp mini-rocket (256hp out of 1.6L? wow).

src: Top Gear

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foto of the day. 205 GTI

Is this the best looking hot hatch ever made?  I am starting to think so…

the Peugeot 205 GTI,  photographed by Autostyle

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Peugeot endurance racing: RIP

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The Audi-Peugeot rivalry at Le Mans has been nothing short of legendary; fierce competition, intense driving, fiery situations, and 2 teams going full on to try to gain victories against each other.

Well all that is over, as Peugeot is dropping the entire endurance racing program, including Le Mans; effective immediately.  Apparently the state of the global economy has taken its toll on the program; not surprising anymore to hear this is it…

I have always rooted fiercly for Audi in these battles…..and have often found myself scorning Peugeot on some of their, well, suspicious tactics.  That being said, i’m very saddened that this competition is now over.  Thanks Peugeot, for competing and for making Le Mans an event worth obsessing over….

links:

http://www.fourtitude.com/news/publish/Motorsport_News/article_7412.shtml

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/97080

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back from the 2011 Petit Le Mans…

All i can say is that I was blown away.  Where to begin?  Should i start with my driving of an R8 V10 Spyder around?  Or that I was in the Audi Sport Team Joest pits for 2 R18 pit stops?  Or that I was in heaven sitting at the track side at night watching some of the greatest race cars in the world go thundering just feet away from me?  Or that I met some of my favourite drivers?  I had a total blast.

More to come about the event, with photos….later this week.  I have so many photos to rummage through.

Oh, and the R18 TDI is even cooler up close!

(picture from the Audi hospitality “chalet” where I had access to, right across from the Porsche base)

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Le Mans 2011 Spotter Guide

great stuff!! (thanks to Halle for the tip!)

VIA: http://www.spotterguides.com/le-mans-2011-guide

(click to enlarge)

 

 

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Le Mans week is here!

Rejoice! The finest week in motorsports has arrived—–the race of all races, the 24 Hours Of Le Mans is upon us.  For many people this signals the proper start to ‘summer’, including myself.  Of course it is no secret that I am an Audiphile through and through—-it is also no secret that Audi and Peugeot have had some fierce battles in the past several years, culminating in one of the great rivalries in motorsports history.  Motorsports have these days become numb and unexciting; however Le Mans has retained most of its charm.  I still get a buzz every time i see the start of the race, even though it is not nearly as dramatic as the old days when people ran into their cockpits.

So will the new Audi R18 TDI be able to surmount the fierce Peugeot 918 HDi reign?  I would like to hope so, but we’ll just have to follow along the best we can!

I know that the entire 24 hours will be broadcasted with continuity in Europe on Eurosport TV, however we are not so lucky in the US.  That being said, we live in the age of bootlegged online TV—-and i’m quite sure many many feeds from Europe will surface that day.  If they don’t, Audi have set up a fantastic minisite which will go live the day of the race.  They will have 24 hour live on-board coverage of the three R18 TDIs which are racing—–accompanied by live telemetry and race data.  Fantastic.

http://www.audi-microsites.com/lemans/

 

I will add some more links and information to other feeds as the race gets closer—–obviously I cannot watch all 24 hours—-but I always watch as many hours of coverage as I possibly can.

Another great source of race day coverage is of course the fantastic Radio Le Mans<

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my recent ugly favourite: Renault R26 R

Europeans are so lucky….they get so many small, quick cars at their disposable.  I’ve always admired the small hatchbacks like the Peugeot GTIs, Renault Clio 172 and RS, Alfa Romeo 147 GTA, Polo GTI, Swift Sport, Focus RS etc…..but one hatch has really caught my eye lately even though it is not being produced any longer (thanks for the correction, Rob) it is reaching the end of its production; Renault Megane R26R.  I honestly think it’s like a low-budget Porsche GT3 RS.  If i was living in Europe, i would surely have one hidden away in my garage.  It’s ugly as f*ck, with it’s heinous rear pillar and odd shaped window treatment; and the front end reminds me of some 2nd rate Oldsmobile from the 70s or 80s.  But as a package, it is weird and cool, and over the top.  In black with some vulgar red stickers; yes please.

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Mazda – Peugeot = 0

Has anyone else noticed how similar the front ends of the Mazda 3 look with the Peugoet 207? yeah they’re not identical, but clearly Mazda has been borrowing some ideas, and changing them jusssssst enough to avoid plagiarism.  Cheeky.

I recently drove a MAZDA 6 rental car on my trip to San Francisco last week, and I am delighted to report that it was a slow, soul-less, derivative pile of rubbish!  “Zoom zoom” my arse…

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video: Group B Rally: Pure Sound.

No commentary or music in this video, just pure Group B exhausts! right on.

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Pikes Peak short film: “Climb Dance” (1990)

Still one of the BEST 5 minutes car clips EVER!

enjoy!

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24 Hours of LeMans is here! Watch it online…

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24 Hours Of LeMans is here! Can AUDI take its R15 TDI to further its domination of the sport? Or can Peugeot finally crack the code?

My money is on the R15.  Audi really knows what they’re doing on this race….

LINKS!

WATCH IT LIVE: http://www.justin.tv/ekatesportshd

WATCH IT LIVE: http://www.justin.tv/tomcio6

WATCH IT (link 2): http://www.ustream.tv/channel/eurohd

WATCH IT (link 2): http://atdhe.net/7452/watch-24-hours-of-le-mans

LIVE TIMINGhttp://www.lemans.org/24heuresdumans/pages/chronos_fr.html

LISTEN TO THE ENTIRE RACE LIVE!: http://rlm08.0157.org/

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