Peugeot Bipper – from the city centre to the world of motor sport

The Bologna Motor Show will see the launch of the innovative Peugeot Bipper “Beep Beep” Concept Van. This is a vehicle which shares much of its character with Peugeot’s LMS Championship winning Peugeot 908 HDi FAP race car.

Like the Peugeot 908 HDi FAP, which was launched onto the world’s motor sport stage in Italy, the Peugeot Bipper “Beep Beep” will also be first seen in Italy.

With the Peugeot 908 HDi FAP, the Peugeot Sport team in its first year of participation in the Le Mans Series managed to win all six races of the 2007 programme and achieve a magnificent second place in the legendary Le Mans 24 Hours.

Competence, precision, efficiency, endurance and speed are therefore prized qualities within the Peugeot Sport team. They are also present in Peugeot’s new Bipper van, which is just as ready to meet the expectations of the many users who will choose this new vehicle as their day to day team mate.

There are other points in common too between the 908, “winner of the 2007 Le Mans Series” and the Bipper “Beep Beep”… such as versatility and the ability to weave in and out of traffic… or indeed their diesel engines incorporating HDi diesel particle filter system (DPFS) technology, albeit delivering power of an entirely different order – plus or minus a nought in the middle – (more than 700 bhp for one and 70 bhp for the other!)

To strengthen further the links with Peugeot Sport, the “Beep Beep” shares the same colour scheme as the Peugeot 908 HDi FAP: matt black sides, red bonnet and roof and a white stripe running lengthways along the vehicle. Its sides display the stylised lion’s head of Peugeot Sport, with the numbers 7 and 8 adjacent to the side windows in a reference to each of the competition 908 HDi FAP race cars. The vehicle’s special gold tinted windows are designed to mimic the visors of the 908 driver’s helmets.

In terms of wheels and suspension, the brakes are now 313 mm diameter discs at the front and black 18” alloy wheels are fitted with Michelin Pilot Sport 225/45 R 18 tyres.

Equipped with a standard production power unit, the “Beep Beep” features a 5-speed electronically controlled manual gearbox (the BMP5) and a 1.4 litre HDi diesel engine developing a power of 55 kW (?70 bhp) and a torque of 160 Nm at 1750 rpm. It is also equipped with a diesel particle filter system (DPFS), also known as FAP.

With this efficient power train and, thanks to its optimised aerodynamics, its fuel consumption in the combined cycle is 62.7 mpg, with CO2 emissions of 119 g/km, the same as the production HDi model.

The Peugeot Bipper van will be on the UK streets in May 2008 and the “Beep Beep” will be watching closely the progress of the Peugeot 908 HDi FAP in the 2008 LMS championship.