Back in '22 Noel Bullock set the racing world on it's ear by winning the Pikes Peak run in his stripped down Model T in 19 minutes and 50 seconds. Here's a link to video shot from the dash of "Monster" Tajima's (don't know the name) Suzuki SX4. He broke into the 9 minute barrier this week. It's 10 minutes long but worth the watch. Would love to go there someday but after seeing this I'm not too sure about sitting right along the road... http://www.autoweek.com/article/20110628/CARNEWS/110629864
Pikes Peak is amazing. We finished Third in the Rally Car Production class back in the mid 80's after crashing off Engineer's Corner during practice. 3 days of heavy chassis and body work at the local Dodge dealer (we had a factory sponsored Omni GLH Turbo) and the car was ready to race again. Would love to run it again.
Watching that video, what's most mindblowing is that someone took less than double the time to do that in 1922.
I just got back from Pikes Peak. My girlfriend drove our 2005 Subaru STi hillclimb and time trial car to a first place finish in the AWD Time Attack class with a finish time of 11:56. This is only the second time in the history of the event a woman has won her class, the first being rallyist Michelle Mouton. We faced some stiff competition, some were pro drivers and others were locals with very well developed cars. As crew chief, it was the most grueling no-sleep, all work event I've ever attended. Not even Speedweek has ever been this hard. Race day: Practice day:
For you guys that have never driven Pikes peak let me tell you it is one white knuckle drive. I cant imagine driving a race car up there FAST! It takes guts and no fear of death. Today a race car went off one of the deadly curves rolling several times.The guy was lucky a huge rock stopped him from rolling down a 1000 feet. He walked away.
Thanks for sharing the video. Hot Rod magazine used to do some good stories on that in the 50's & 60's. It must be fantastic in person.
What! They paved the road! I was there last about 20 years ago and set up at what I remember to be the "Devils Playground" or something like that. Right beside the climbing switchback with a big old VHS recorder. Standing next to the road like an idiot to get some really good shots and did not realize how much sliding was going on and just how many rocks (or boulders) were being thrown by the tires. One of my dumber moments and the lens of the camera was chipped all to pieces by the gravel not to mention my head. But, that is one great piece of tape I got that day and luckily, I lived to show it.
And what happens when it goes wrong......... <object style="height: 390px; width: 640px"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/7rVdS8Qnvb8?version=3"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/7rVdS8Qnvb8?version=3" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowScriptAccess="always" width="640" height="390"></object>
Jason from the HRG pointed me towards this video. He just got back from helping a client race their '49(?) Cad up there. That video of Monster is incredible, especially above the tree line! Like another planet.....you keep thinking, man you are hauling ass and you just HAVE to BE running out of planet pretty soon?! Holy crap! An actual nightmare come true for this acrophobiac. ....and congrats Modernbeat! Your girl has some intestinal fortitude for sure!!!
Awesome video. Look up Ari Vatenen in the Peugeot on YouTube, it was a professionally made film for Castrol I think. edit.... here we go....
That crash is pretty fockin' scary. I found this clip from 1957. At about the 5 minute mark they show open wheeled Champ cars racing up the dirt road at Pikes Peak, finishing in 14 minutes. Maybe a slight glimpse of what it was like to do it in a Model T powered car in 1922? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=omCAkCV9GB8&feature=related
"Monster" Tajima is 61 years old and is the racing driver equivalent of a ninja. The car he is driving has upward of 1000hp and weighs very little. Amazing stuff. Heres the video: <object width="640" height="390"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/7VAJaZAV-gQ?version=3&hl=en_US&rel=0"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/7VAJaZAV-gQ?version=3&hl=en_US&rel=0" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="640" height="390" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true"></embed></object>
That reminded me of when me and my now wife were going for a drive,and she spun of out on that road,Scared the sh$%@#$#t out of her!!!I drove home.
Wow, that's great news! Congratulations to her for her driving and to you for your technical prowess.
The road will be fully paved in the next few years, gravel runoff from the road has been brutal on the mountains drainage systems and they have been paving more and more due to that. Thats when this race gets even more insane, i fully expect an F1 or indy car to be trucked up here at that point.
They require you to run all practices if you are going to race. What they do is split the mountain into 3 sections and you can only run a section at a time, when scheduled. After crashing the race car on the first day,we still had to run practice. We didn't bring the back up car, figuring we wouldn't need it for anything, so we practiced in a Dodge D300 Maxi Van - complete with a huge roof rack that carried all the spare tires and gas cans. It was quite a sight! and SCARY as hell.
GREAT POST!!!!!!!!! Everyone should take a drive up Pikes Peak! I took Debbie and the kids up in the family wagon back in the Mid 1990's, think I was about 30 minutes off the record at that time.
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