Peugeot is back in endurance racing, with a hybrid model in the Hypercar category with which it wants to win the 24 hours of Le Mans 2023, which this year celebrates the centenary of its first edition, and although the 9X8 has not been Launched on a very good footing in the first two races of the World Endurance Championship (WEC), the one won by Fernando Alonso in the 2018-2019 season, including two 24 Hours of Le Mans- the brand has one of the most spectacular cars of the grill, a model that had been presented in gray and that is now much more striking with the new decoration carried out by the artist J. Demsky, artistic name of this graffiti artist born in Elche, where he has his work studio, and whose avant-garde art is recognized halfway around the world.
Just arrived from the 2023 edition of the Art Basel Hong Kong Fair, where his designs have taken over two huge audiovisual installations in the busiest area of the city, J.Demsky meets with the press at design week in Milan, where Peugeot presents this design with which its cars will race at Le Mans.
Inspired by the world of graffiti, where he began signing as J. DEM, the 9X8 is dressed in the Peugeot sport colours: red, two shades of blue and yellow on a white background, but they are reinterpreted with a significant dose of design inspired by the world of arcade and electronic art that make the car a spectacular device that combines its original silhouette -it is the first racing car on the track without a rear wing- with a truly avant-garde image.
For J. Demscky -whose face is not public, as became common among artists from the world of graffiti: Banksy, the also Valencian Felipe Pntone or J. Demsky himself-, the challenge was to manage to carry the design keys of the artist to this new format: «we started from a blank sheet, but in the end we have captured the style of the brand with something that would be immediately recognizable as one of my works, which has taken us several weeks of dialogue and work until we achieved the final result”.
The livery, which is what these decorations on sports cars are called, applies to the entire team: cars, drivers’ overalls, helmets… “it is a complete design, which will be released for Le Mans and which will incorporate both cars In race. We wanted to bring the car to the Elche studio to do it there, but it was very complicated due to logistics and in the end we have done a large part of the work virtually and the other by visiting the Peugeot design studio, in addition to the audiovisual work with which presents in Milan». For J. Demsky, who has designed the Heineken universe in the metaverse, Bershka’s flagship store, or collaborations with different fashion and design entities, the work on the 9X8 is his first foray into the automotive world.
«My work combines works with a commercial profile with others of our own design, such as a work under the sea that we carried out a few months ago and that we want to make permanent. In personal works I work 100 percent without limits, but when working with brands it is about fusing the style of what we represent with my vision of art”. J. Demsky, like all urban artists, does not deny or leave the world of graffiti, «urban art is part of cities, like billboards or the buildings themselves. It’s banned all over the world, but more and more cities are pushing it as part of their image.”
Peugeot faces the French race with the 9X8 in the Hypercar category, with a 680 hp 2.6-liter V6 turbo engine and an electric motor for the front axle that, according to this year’s regulations, is activated from 150 per hour per hour. count the Peugeot with the same size of wheels in front or behind. Ferrari or Toyota, which are ahead right now in performance, activate this extra power from 190 per hour due to the different size of the wheels, according to the ‘Balance of performance’ or BoP that now governs the Le Mans regulations for Make the competition as even as possible.
In the first two races -Sebring in the United States and Portimao in Portugal- the 9X8 has not been able to shine, with reliability and top speed problems, so it is very likely that the brand activates one of the five technical evolutions that the championship before the Le Mans race, where Peugeot wants to celebrate twenty years since its treble in 1993. Achieving victory in the first participation is very difficult but, as the experts say, the winner is the first to cross the flag at paintings, and in a 24 hour test anything can happen. What is remarkable is that, with this ‘made in Spain’ design, Peugeot has guaranteed attention.
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