The
turbo inlet duct serves dual function. A vertical splitter
divides
the asymmetrical inlet area up in roughly halves with one side feeding
the turbo (outboard inlet area), the other the rear brakes. For
the 2008 Le Mans Test Days the 908 appeared with a revised turbo
inlet.
In order to increase the height of the inlet, which is regulated to no
more than 200 mm above the surrounding surfaces (Art 3.4.5 c/), Peugeot
locally increased the height of the bodywork below the intake through a
surface undulation. This surface offset allowed the inlet to
be raised
by the amount of the offset even though the intake itself was still no
more than 200 mm above that surface. The inlet area is now
symmetrical
and there have been suggestions that the increase in height has been
designed
so that the inlet works in conjunction with vortices shed off the side
mirror though this would seem to inject low pressure air into an area
where
you are desiring a ram effect and high pressure. |
 |
Here's
a comparison between the debut tail (here, and reversed for
comparison's
sake) with the Le Mans '08 update (below).
We
can see that the rear fender shape is more blunt making the engine
inlet
seem much more "remote" visually. The trailing edge of the
tail also
has a more agressive kick up and the rear wing endplates are
larger. 
The
diesel engine's water cooler exhausts out a louvered panel in the
forward
vertical face of the side pod.
The
center section of the cockpit's trailing edge is pinched inward in
order
to improve airflow to the rear wing.
The
908's rear wing is an extruded section which doesn't change across its
span. 
Compared
to the '08 wing, the '09 wing clearly is being run at a higher angle of
attack (compare the mainplanes). This in an attempt to claw
back downforce from the reduction in span (1.6 M vs. 2.0 M) and chord
(250 mm from 300 mm). We understand that top mounted "swan neck" wing mounts (1, 2) were evaluated (to what extent, CFD or full scale testing we don't know) but rejected given the time and costs associated for the gain.
The
trailing edge body gurney is of varying height. At Le Mans in
2007
the body gurney was changed out a number of times during the race
weekend as the team fine tuned the car setup. The
team made
the
changes rapidly by changing the entire tail sections that had the new
gurney
already fitted. Peugeot continues this trend as noted at
Petit Le
Mans 2008 (see below).
The
908's rear diffuser strakes no longer terminate at the trailing edge of
the diffuser. Instead the Peugeot's strakes end ahead of the
diffuser's trailing edge in addition to having a notch cut into them.
The
introduction in 2009 of the narrow span and short chord rear wing saw
an increase in the height of the tail gurneys.
An
additional gurney tab was added outboard on the rear fender.