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Motorsport

You can buy an actual Peugeot 908 Le Mans car

Buy your very own Le Mans prototype at this weekend’s Monaco Historique

Published: 12 May 2016

Into trackdays? Have we the car for you. This is a Peugeot 908 HDi FAP. Chassis 908-05, to be precise – one of nine raced by the factory team between 2007 and 2010. It finished second at both the Le Mans 24 Hours and Nurburgring 1000km in 2008. In 2009 it won the Petit Le Mans at Road Atlanta, and in 2010 the 1000km of Algrave. Its drivers? Jacques Villeneuve and Marc Gene among others.

Some history. The 908 marked Peugeot’s return to top-flight endurance racing. It hadn’t competed since the early Nineties, when the 905 took home two Le Mans wins in a row. After the Audi R10 TDI won at Le Mans – the first diesel to do so – in 2006, Peugeot quickly cottoned on to the idea of a diesel-powered endurance racer, and unveiled a model of the 908 at the Paris motor show that September. It started on pole at La Sarthe in 2007 and 2008, but ultimately finished second to the Audi on both occasions, before eventually winning in 2009.   

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The engine is a 5.5-litre twin-turbocharged V12 with something like 700bhp (there are rarely official figures for these things), and naturally there’s some pretty serious aero going on. One of two cars built for the 2008 season, this is only the second time a 908 has been put up for sale. In all, this one is responsible for two victories, three second-place finishes, three poles, and four fastest laps. 

RM Sotheby’s, who’s selling the car at its Monaco Historique (think Goodwood Revival or Silverstone Classic) auction this weekend, reckons it’ll fetch between €1.2 and €1.6million. So over £1million.

Oh, and by the way, this is not a turn-key racer. RM says starting the 908 requires “specific equipment, third-party software licences, and skills”, and that Peugeot Sport will provide this for two years at its normal rates, whatever they happen to be. 

So you can, in theory, rock up to a trackday with it. You want to, don't you?

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