Sometime around 1915, Spencer Penrose was putting the finishing touches on his life's work - "Pikes Peak Highway." After making the pass passable by widening and leveling the road, Spencer decided he needed a marketing catch to get tourist to trust h... <BR><BR>To read the rest of this blog entry from The Jalopy Journal, click here.
The Unser family ruled this place for years. Racing up the coarse is said to be a ADDICTIVE PASSION!!! Flirting with that demon!!! Go figure>>>>.
I had a similar experience this past weekend as we went to a Model A farm in the mountains. To to make a long story short, we got lost and ended up taking a trail/dirt road trying to make our way off the mountain only inches from the edge of the cliff. It took us about an hour to find our way to a more respectable elevation. Pikes Peak seems way cooler and those images are proof. Not something I think I would try but I would be more then willing to watch some people double down and get dirty....or dead. I could do without the latter though.
After more then 100 years, some of the road and hairpin turns still looks the same, dirt and gravel. Very cool photos, thanks for sharing.
A couple of years ago we drove up the road to pikes peak.. It's scary enough going 30 mph. about 50% of the time all you can see out the windshield is sky.
Record sits at 10:01,broke by Team Suzuki.The record was 10:04 and stood for like 16 years.Takes a tourist more than an hour to drive up.Bonneville and Pikes Peak,way cool grass roots racing.Thanks for the post,the blown Harley Davidson entry in the 50s photos is bad ass.Google shows it as offy powered and did the climb in15:42:30 in 1953
Not a HAMB car but relates to "The Mountain" We raced the Rally Car class in 1986 and during practice drove the car off the cliff at Engineers Corner. About a 30ft drop to a small "ledge" on the mountain that stopped the car - abruptly. Otherwise it was hundreds of feet to the bottom. The car spent the next 3 days at the local Dodge dealer on the frame machine getting straightened. We had to continue practice in a 1 ton extended wheelbase Dodge van. Quite embarrassing (they require you to run all practice sessions as a rookie). Did end up with a third in class after all that Dodge Omni GLH Turbo - the Shelby built creations
My question is: were the majority of the cars (in thse photos) purpose built for Pikes Peak, or were they regular race cars that also ran at the peak. The reason I'm asking is, I see several of the sprint cars running bolt-on wheels. A HAMB'er (Recycler) wants to run his speedster at Bonneville. He was told by Bonne officials that he couldn't run his car in a vintage sprint car class because it didn't have knock-off wheels. It's a bit off the topic of this post, but are we looking at one-race race cars?
Great post and unbelievable photos. I have had the pleasure of camping on the mountain the night before the race, having a great campfire breakfast in the cool, crisp air and being in our favorite turns for the race. I managed to crawl into a large culvert that was under one of the turns and then shooting pictures as the cars literally drove over me. Real racers, real cars, real hot rod heritage and real racing on a beautiful mountain. Sadly, there is an environmental movement underway to PAVE the entire road because there is dirt, gravel etc. runoff damaging the pristine wildlife on the mountain.....so get out there before it is gone.
Scary stuff for sure! Having driven up Pikes Peak a couple times, most recently last summer in a roadster, I can tell you first hand it can get unbelievably hairy even in a fairly modern day car. I would encourage everyone to do it at least once. And if you're brave, in your hot rod! I hope they NEVER pave the dirt and gravel parts, they are the most fun! Great photos, thanks for sharing.
The open wheel class is now pretty much dominated by r/e cars now and the traditonal upright (championship class) is, I believe, gone. However the uprights still race the local CHCA hillclimbs. To answer your question, the upright cars are based on normal sprint cars but modified to allow the use of a transmission, turn L&R and bolt on wheels are common.
If I remember correctly about half of the course has already been paved and they are working on the rest. My grandparents have a cabin in the mountains that they spend the summers at. You can sit on their front balcony with a good set of binoculars and watch the race. It's only possible to actually see the last 1/4 or so of the course (above the tree line).
I'm bummed they stopped the Chimney Rock Hillclimb here in North Carolina, I think the last time it ran was '95. But there are a couple of newer ones that have been running. It's some of the coolest racing ever.... I always wanted to make it to Pikes Peak for the races...
Interesting site and great photo's. Thanks for bringing it to Ryan's attention Drewfus. Some may know, but there is a film of a guy named Ari Vatanen(?) racing up to the peak in very quick time, circa mid 8o's. The footage is taken both from the car and trackside. It takes the viewer on the full ride and gives a real idea of the experiance. Vatanen's crew chief was a guy called Jean Todt(?) who later went on to head the Farrari F1 team. I don't know how to find this film (I've seen it once on someones laptop), but recomend anyone who does to post, as it is well worth a look.
Pikes is amazing, Rod Millen from NZ and his son do a pretty good job there and Monster from Japan they also come down to Queenstown NZ and do the local version not quite Pikes Peak but pretty good by all accounts. Ari was a pretty flash ralley driver in his day I think I may have seen that footage at some time, my brother had a heap to do with hte NZ ralley at that time.
That is such an awesome race!!! The thing that always got me was the Semi's. I'd like to do it on a bike...
Not as spectacular, but older, since 1906 is the Giant's Despair Hill Climb still held each July on the same public road near Wilkes-Barre PA. See www.pahillclimb.org. We would hang on the snow fence inches from the pavement. When I was a teenager the had Speed Week with the Hill Climb Friday and Saturday and drag races at the Forty Fort Airport Sunday. Many of the sports car types would also run the drags.
A friend of mine here in Barnwell, Sc has the 1962 Galaxie that Curtis Turner drove in the '62 Hillclimb. I believe it was the first stock bodied car to go up in under 15 minutes. It was a Holman/ Moody car sponsored by the local Ford dealer in Denver, CO. An original 406 tripower car converted to single 4 bbl. to meet USAC rules. Kerry
Ari Vatanen is a Finnish Rally driver who won the world championship in 1981. In 1985 he was almost killed running the Rally of Argentina and his recovery took 18 months. Then he came back to win more rallies, including Paris Dakar - 4 times. If you want to read a really intriguing book, get his autobiography titled "Every second counts" it's very interesting. He is an amazing man. I know this is a bit off topic but someone else started it And yes I am a big fan and did Rally against him in Carson City in 1986 on a World Championship Event, have a great picture of his Audi and my Mitsubishi together in front of the Nevada capitol.