Peugeot Le Mans Hypercar Won't Get Road Version, The rules left some wiggle room

Details about Peugeot's new Le Mans hypercar continue to trickle out slowly. The company has already teased the racer and revealed information about its potent hybrid powertrain; however, those hoping to see what the road-going version would look like will be disappointed. The French automaker told Car Throttle that it has no plans to build a road-going version of the hypercar to meet homologation requirements.

Peugeot told the publication that it's building "a 100 percent race prototype only," and because of that, it doesn't have to tie it to a road-going model to meet the racing series' homologation requirements. Peugeot is returning to the Le Mans Hypercar category, which requires companies to build 25 road cars. That doesn't appear to be the case for Peugeot, though the requirements left some wiggle room for the automaker.

The rule said that companies would have to build 25 road-going cars that used the hybrid powertrain within two years of the car's motorsport debut. However, the rules also stated that companies are not required to produce road-legal cars that are the same as their racing counterparts. Instead, only the hybrid setup has to have a road-going variant, and Peugeot did tie its new hypercar to the hybrid performance version of the 508 PSE when it announced its return to the series.

The 508 PSE sports a 1.6-liter four-cylinder paired with two electric motors. Total output is 355 horsepower (265 kilowatts) and 384 pound-feet (520 Newton-meters) of torque. Peugeot's Le Mans hypercar pairs a twin-turbocharged 2.6-liter V6 with a single electric motor. Le Mans regulations stipulate the output when the car's on track, though the engine makes 670.5 hp (500 kW) while the electric motor produces 268 hp (200 kW). While the two powertrains look dissimilar, Peugeot says that there are "bridges" between the sedan and the hypercar.