Car Buzz is reporting that Dodge may be heading to LeMans with a French hypercar. Here is what was reported: "Dodge is a brand obsessed with horsepower and arguably the only brand willing to put insane creations like the Challenger SRT Super Stock into production. While that car has more power than most supercars, Dodge is not a supercar company. However, that may soon change, in a way. As part of Stellantis, Dodge is part of the same group that houses Peugeot, and the French automaker has just unveiled a new hypercar called the 9X8, two years on from its original announcement of the car. This coincides with a newly ratified prototype convergence that includes Stellantis, the WEC, the ACO, and IMSA. Now the group is considering using the underpinnings of the 9X8 to create a new car to enter as part of an American team in the WeatherTech SportsCar Championship. According to Racer, the Peugeot LMH car is "being considered for either a part- or full-time IMSA campaign with Dodge backing." If this idea foes go through, the Dodge version of the 9X8 (which will itself only debut next year) could race in the 2023 championship when the LMDh class begins operating as LMH cars can race alongside these hybrid prototypes in a single class. Of course, it's too soon to speculate much about what the Dodge hypercar prototype could be like, but we don't expect it to change very much from Peugeot's original concept besides some branding updates and some Dodge-like styling for things like the headlights. In case you missed it, the Peugeot 9X8 makes use of a 2.6-liter twin-turbo V6 developing 680 horsepower on its own. This motor sends power to the rear wheels via a seven-speed sequential transmission, while the front wheels add to the overall grunt thanks to being powered by a 268-hp electric motor. It'll be interesting to see if Dodge's hypercar will be any different, but at this point, we're just thankful that the brand could be returning to IMSA at all. That said, competition from Porsche and others will be stiff, and we'd love to see Dodge stick it to the big guns."
