Earlier this month, Honda was said to enter a total of 10 cars, motorcycles and ATVs in the upcoming 2013 Pikes Peak Hill Climb. Along with setting a world record for the company with the most entries in the ultimate hill climb, Honda is also aiming for an overall victory. Last year, Honda obtained victories only in the 450 Division and the "Quad Modified" class, making the run a nearly complete disappointment for the proud automaker.
One of these 10 entries will be a CR-Z driven by Sage Marie for Honda North America in the Exhibition class. This race version of the CR-Z was developed by Honda Performance Development and will be equipped with a turbocharger and upgraded hybrid drivetrain that delivers a total of 200 horsepower.
The 91st running of the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb is scheduled for June 30, 2013 in Colorado Springs, Colorado.
Click past the jump to read more about the standard Honda CR-Z.
Honda has big plans for this year’s Pikes Peak Hill Climb, as the company is shooting for and overall victory, but also wants to set a record for the number of classes entered by a single manufacturer. First details suggest that a total of 10 Honda cars, motorcycles and ATVs will be entering the ultimate hill climb. Last year, the company managed to obtain victories only in the 450 Division and the "Quad Modified" class.
The Pikes Peak, also called "The Race to the Clouds,” is one of the most spectacular motor sports events on Earth: the course covers 12.42 miles, starts at 9,390 feet and ends at 14,110 feet only after tackling 156 turns. The competitors will lose about 30 percent of the engine power due to the thin air at the high-altitude finish line.
This year’s Pikes Peak International Hill Climb is scheduled for June 29th through 30th.
Hit the jump to read more about Honda’s experience at Pikes Peak.
Rally legend, Sebastian Loeb, is considered one of the greatest drivers in the world, having taken home nine WRC titles in his illustrious car. For a man that’s no stranger to winning, Loeb is poised to take on his next challenge: taking down Pikes Peak.
And for that, Peugeot announced that it had “borrowed” Loeb from Citroen to drive the company’s new 208-derived T16 Pikes Peak race car.
The car itself is expected to compete in the Unlimited Class of the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb. Performance details have yet to be announced, but expect this racecar to pack in tremendous amounts of power, possibly even reaching 1,000 horsepower.
The race car looks like it’s been given copious amounts of carbon fiber to go with extended side skirts and a side-exiting exhaust. A massive rear wing also part of the design, as is an interior that’s been stripped down to accommodate nothing more than racing equipment.
A carbon-fiber racing seat can clearly be seen inside a roll cage. There’s also a digital instrument cluster, alloy pedals, and an Alcantara-wrapped steering wheel with paddle shifters.
UPDATE 05/14/13: The Peugeot 208 T16 Pikes Peak race car has been dressed in Red Bull livery. Now that’s what we’re talking about!
Click past the jump to read about Peugeot’s return to Pikes Peak and the 208 that this racer is based on.
Last year, LoveFab made its debut at the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb with a race car based on the Acura NSX. The team did great at the race and managed to finish one of the toughest motorsport events in the world. For the 2013 Pikes Peak, the team will make a comeback with a lighter and more powerful Acura NSX-based machine.
The new project is known as the "Enviate" and will be driven by LoveFab’s owner and professional driver, Cody Loveland. Even though it is based on the NSX, the new Enviate will only retain the original subframes and suspension. Everything else has been modified, including the twin turbocharged, dry-sumped LS1 engine; ultra-lightweight chromoly tube-chassis; and the full carbon fiber body.
The new LoveFab Enviate will begin testing on May 1st and then will be ready for the 91st running of the Pikes Peak run.
At this year’s Pikes Peak International Hill Climb, Rhys Millen and team RMR have set a new world record with a time of 9:46.164. And today Rhys has revealed a pretty cool video showing the entire hill climb.
With this time, Millen was just few tenths of a second quicker than 2010 Le Mans Champion Romain Dumas and his Porsche 997 GT3-R who managed a time of 9:46.181.
"With the newly paved section of the course and the hot weather conditions, a lot of people failed or crashed. Our cars balance remained the same from practice to race day using these Hankook F200 Tires this entire run. Even on a slick tire and torrential downpour in the last mile and a half, with the heat we were able to achieve in the tires the grip was still adequate and we were able to produce a new world record,” said Rhys Millen after Sundays victory from the summit.
For anyone that got a chance to see the wreck-fest that was also known as the 2012 Pikes Peak International Hill Climb (PPIHC), you may have noticed an odd vehicle resting just inside the top-10 standings. This vehicle was a Polaris RZR-X... That’s right, a UTV managed to sneak its way into the top-10 with a finishing time of 10:40.669.
This is not a normal RZR-X that you would see sitting in a local bike shop. Oh, no. It’s owner, Doug Siddens, and his crew have this RZR-X tuned to the gills, making it outrun some of the most exotic cars in the world.
In addition, if you were to sit this RZR next to any other RZR in the world, you would barely be able to tell that they are the same vehicle. Doug’s beast features all of the fixins needed to make it into a true race car, err, race UTV.
Mr. Siddens was so kind to actually take the time out to send us a laundry list of what the vehicle has and we chose to provide our readers with a full review of this amazing Polaris RZR.
Click past the jump to read this entire review, as well as see some awesome pics and videos of Doug’s impressive Polaris.
Yesterday, we brought you an exclusive interview with Paul Dallenbach following his death defying accident at the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb. Now, we have managed to get our hands on a few more bits of exclusive material, thanks to Paul and his PR rep.
The first bits of material we received were the actual images of the trees that Paul’s 1,400-horsepower racecar plowed over. As you can see in the images, he snapped those pines like they were No. 2 pencils. The second image shows us his mangled open-wheel racer laying covered in what appears to be fire-extinguishing foam.
The last bit of material took some time to get, but it was well worth the wait. Paul has graced us with the first look at his in-car footage from the accident. We never knew exactly how far into the race he was when the accident occurred, but it turns out that he was less than a minute from the starting line before careening into the woods, according to the footage, which you can see above.
The sheer violence of the impact really shows us just how lucky Mr. Dallenbach was to survive this ordeal. What an amazing piece of footage and what an amazing man to be willing to share all of this information with us.
A huge thank you to Paul, Mary, and the entire Dallenbach Racing team. Best wishes on a full recovery to Paul and we can’t wait to see him behind the wheel again.
Pikes Peak is the home of the dramatic wreck, thanks to its 156 twists and turns over a 12-mile-long mountain course. Thanks to Paul Dallenbach, we got a really cool first-hand account of one of the two most dramatic wrecks of this year’s run. Fortunately, he is doing well and seems ready to hop back in the driver’s seat.
By far the most dramatic wreck, but only because we get to see the entire thing unfold, is the one that Jeremy Foley and his co-driver endured. As his Lancer Evolution was heading toward an area very appropriately named “Devil’s Playground,” Jeremy lost control of his Evo and went straight over the hill, rolling about 10 times – by our count – before finally coming to a smoking rest. The two had Dallenbach-like luck, as neither broke any bones, according to reports, but the co-driver is suffering from a sore shoulder. Check out the dramatic video above.
Click past the jump to see additional footage of other wrecks from the 2012 Pikes Peak International Hill Climb.
Pikes Peak is by far one of the most treacherous courses in the U.S., as it climbs a total of 4,720 feet over a span of 12.42 miles and it boasts 156 turns. Even on its own site it says “Competitors and vehicles must be in top shape simply to finish...let alone win!” The video above shows exactly what can happen when even the slightest error in a car can cause a deadly crash scene.
Fortunately for the racing world, Paul Dallenbach, the driver of the 1,400-horsepower monster you see taking high-speed plunge into the trees, cheated death this time around. We were interested in how he was feeling, so we gave our Paul a call and checked on his recovery process. He felt so good, he was able to give us a short interview about the crash, so our readers can get a good idea of what actually went on.
UPDATE 08/14/2012: Check out our images of the Dallenbach’s race car post crash, as well as the state of the scene after the crash!
We were also able to get a video of the crash from the car’s onboard camera!! Check it out above!
Click past the jump to read what Paul had to say about this gut wrenching wreck.
After a huge wildfire delayed the 2012 Pikes Peak International Hill Climb, it has finally had its day in the spotlight, and it did not disappoint. The entire PPIHC was chock-full of craziness and highlights, along with some low-lights worthy of mention.
The biggest highlight of the day was seeing a record set at last year’s race fall. It fell not only once, but twice in only 10 starts. Switzerland’s Romain Dumas – a PPIHC rookie – fired up the hill, completing the course in just 9:46.18 in his 2012 PorscheGT3 RS. This demolished the 9:51.278 record set by Nobuniro Tajima In 2011. Just 10 starts later, Rhys Millen, an 18-year PPIHC veteran, beat Dumas’ time by 0.02 seconds in his 2012 Hyundai Genesis coupe. Yeah, figure that one out; a Hyundai beat a Porsche GT3 RS.
Dejected, Dumas vowed never to race Pike’s Peak again, claiming it is unfair because he raced in rainy conditions, while Millen got a drier track to run on. In all honesty, though, 10 starts just doesn’t seem like a long enough time frame to cause a huge discrepancy in track conditions. We’re calling “Sore loser” on this one. That’s no way to get a good name in the racing world.
A huge low-light in this year’s race is the fact that the 2011 champion and former record holder, Nobuniro Tajima, didn’t even get a shot at the title, as his electric motor burned up. Tajima had a pretty good chance to win the race in back-to-back years, but that was apparently not in the cards this year. We’re sure he’ll be back near the top next year.
Let’s take a look at the top-3 in each class, plus the top-10 overall results.
