With my school exams over; thoughts have moved straight back to racing. This week I headed to France to test the latest TCR specification touring car – The Peugeot 308 Racing Cup.
After more than 12 months of development I was one of the first non-factory drivers to be invited to get behind the wheel of the car as part of the international media launch in France.
I travelled to the Lurcy-Lévis test track in France to join a select group of international journalists who had been invited to drive the car on Thursday 7th July. The Lurcy-Lévis test track is an old test facility created in 1989 and over the years has been used to test everything from formula one cars, to tyres and engine management systems. The offices proudly display pictures of Marlboro McLaren and Ferrari F1 cars being tested.
The track includes a very long straight with a range of different corners making it very technical and a good test location.
The Peugeot 308 Racing Cup car is based on Peugeot’s latest 308 GTi road car but is a fully focused TCR specification car with a turbo charged 308 bhp engine, a six-speed sequential, paddle shift gearbox and full aero.
To find out more about what it is like to drive check out my review on the Peugeot UK web site in the eRapport magazine, to be published next month.
After the Lurcy-Lévis test I had a day off and headed to the Magny-Cours circuit to watch the French GT Tour. The GT tour covers the French F4 championship I raced in last year, Clio Cup France/Benelux, Peugeot RCZ Racing Cup, Mitjet Series and European Touring Cars.
I was interested in finding out more about the Peugeot RCZ Racing Cup but more about that in another post.
Saturday it was back to the Magny-Cours track to try the Peugeot 308 racing Cup car again on a different circuit. With the temperature into the high 30s the issue of getting tyre temperature in the rear tyres at the test at Lurcy-Lévis was not an issue. In fact the car had too much rear grip in some long, flowing corners. However, it was good to drive the car again on a different track and in different conditions.
With the test over the next step is to wait for the French Motorsport Federation to decide on the Championship regulations for the car for next year, and then do everything to get back in the seat, so watch this space...
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