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ALMS: Sebring Wednesday Trackside Blog
Written by: Marshall Pruett   
03/13/2008
Sebring, Florida
 
Spy shots of the Peugeot are blocked at every opportunity. A $250 bounty awaits the first clean shot of the engine and rear suspension... (Photo: Marshall Pruett) ยป More Photos


Marshall Pruett, 11:31 PM ET


Peug-NO!

Racing teams have long strived to keep the performance pieces on their cars hidden from their rivals, and even more so from photographers. Audi, for example, are fast to cover the engine and rear suspension with a thermal blanket once the rear bodywork is removed.

Just as the battle on-track has heated up between Audi and Peugeot, it appears Peugeot have upped the ante and have taken a clear lead in cloaking the private bits on their 908 prototype.

The privacy proliferation was first seen at Le Mans last year; Peugeot, concerned their rivals might copy something on their cars and much to the dismay of the assemble press corps, instructed their mechanics to form a wall at the entrance to their garage whenever critical bodywork was removed. A human wall, it seemed, was the perfect antidote for a photographer firing off a clean shot of the engine or suspension in detail.

Sportscar photographers—a hardened group of folks that refuse to be deterred by pithy things like human walls, skirted the mechanics by holding their camera over head or by standing on small step ladders to shoot over the tops of the Peugeot crew.

That innovation was matched and surpassed when the mechanics were instructed to use
the always effective ‘cover the camera lens with your hand’ technique. It was game over at that point and no proper images of an undressed Peugeot were seen.

Fast forward to Sebring 2008. Everyone wants to see beneath the skin of the 908’s but the Peugeot boys are craftier than ever. Rather than removing the engine cover and risking to expose their prized parts for a split second before they can be covered, they’ve learned to just crack the leading edge of the bodywork open (a three inch gap at most) and to pull the protective covering over the rear of the car without taking the engine cover off. With the thermal blanket draped over the car’s back end, only then does the engine cover get removed.

In the game of cat-and-mouse between Peugeot, Audi, and sportscar photographers, expect the privacy race to escalate as the competition increases. I’ll put a $250 bounty on the first clear high resolution photo of the 908’s engine bay and rear suspension. Racecar Engineering magazine has added a free year’s subscription to the bounty. That right there takes the total up to at least $251 dollars.

Come on America—we’re the global leaders in spying--don’t let our Peugeot friends keep the insides of their gorgeous 908’s a secret any longer.
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