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Peugeot 308 P51 TCR Turns Maiden Laps in Sandown Shakedown

August 30, 2024

The world’s first Australian-built TCR car, the Peugeot 308 P51 TCR, has broken ground after completing a successful shakedown at Sandown Raceway.

The task of designing and producing the second generation of Peugeot TCR machinery was awarded to highly decorated Dandenong-based team Garry Rogers Motorsport. The first of many P51 TCR’s to come hit the track at Sandown on Friday, 18 months on from the initial design phase commencing.

It’s the latest addition to GRM’s remarkable history of building industry-leading racing machinery, notable cars including their Bathurst 24-Hour winning Monaros and the fleet of record-breaking S5000s.

Supercheap Auto TCR Australia race winner Ben Bargwanna was tasked with running the Peugeot through its paces, as the GRM squad successfully ran through a robust shakedown program.

GRM have been a winning force in TCR competition since the inaugural TCR Australia season in 2019, with the squad currently running four first-generation Peugeot TCR’s for Bargwanna, Aaron Cameron, Ryan Casha and Jordan Cox.

The inaugural track day is the latest milestone on the charge towards the P51’s competitive TCR debut. After a rigorous dyno testing programme, GRM have sent one of their new engines to Modena in Italy where it will undergo further testing and official certification from WSC Sports – the global rights holder of TCR.

A WSC representative will also spend time at the GRM workshop as part of the certification process for the car itself. The chassis which hit the track at Sandown is one of four currently being prepped by GRM, as the team looks towards building cars for Peugeot TCR customers across the world.

Quotes:
Ben Bargwanna – Driver, Hangcha Racing #71

“Coming into the day we obviously knew that we had a lot to learn. So far from the small sample of the new P51 we’ve quickly learnt that it is very different to the old generation 308, but we ran through plenty of programs and collected plenty of data to do some homework on it.

“GRM have put in countless hours of work on this project and to even get it to the track was special, I think everyone felt a massive sense of pride as the car rolled out of pitlane for the first time that’s for sure. By no means are we there yet, but I most definitely had a huge smile on my face all day,” said Bargwanna.

Barry Rogers – Director, Garry Rogers Motorsport
“To see not just a new car but one in particular that we have designed and developed in house roll out was an extremely proud moment for all of the crew here at GRM. The day went well and we achieved what we wanted to, just making sure it went through all the process how we expected it would.

“There is a lot of new equipment going into this car and the focus for us whenever we build new cars is utilising not just Australian but Victorian manufacturing, which is no different to when we built the S5000’s. The Transmission was a big thing with this car, the global TCR cars all utilise transmissions from two or three main suppliers. We trusted our local company in Holinger Engineering and the feedback from the day was really positive.

“We test again at Winton in 10 days, so look forward to that,” said Rogers.