Pikes Peak International Hill Climb

[blueline]

The "Race to the Clouds" - Pikes Peak 2023 takes place on Sunday, June 25th. 70 entries this year.

12.42 miles, 156 turns. First run in 1916 with a time of 20:55.60. The record now stands at 7:57.148 set by the Porsche factory driver Romain Dumas in 2018 in the all-electric Volkswagen I.D. R pictured below.

Pikes Peak Volkswagen I.D. R.jpg (329.68 KiB) Viewed 1912 times

By Alexander Migl - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.p ... d=82363832

Jeff Zwart will be there with his ZwartSpeed Porsches. There are also six Porsche GT4's running for the Porsche Pikes Peak Trophy By Yokohama. I counted a dozen Porsche's, maybe more.

Entry list, not including commemorative run entrants: https://ppihc.org/competitor-list/

Lucy Block and Lia Block (wife and daughter, respectively) will be there making the climb in memory of the late, great Ken Block.

All kinds of cool and different vehicles - both ICE and electric, including a Ford all-electric van with 4-motors - one at each wheel - together producing 1973 HP. Zero to 60 time under 2-seconds.

From Autoweek:

"Pikes Peak is never boring—and never predictable. Just when you think your latest, greatest, highest-tech entry is going to win everything, it rains. Or snows. Or both. Since the mountain rises 14,115 feet into the strato-cumulous, poking up through the atmosphere and catching whatever weather is passing by, you never know what’s going to happen. Sometimes it makes its own weather."

https://www.autoweek.com/racing/more-ra ... d568259d8a

Pikes Peak 2023 - Porsches!.jpeg (69.17 KiB) Viewed 1912 times

[Stormy_Monday]

big cajones.....

[blueline]

big cajones.....

No kidding. It's scary, especially at the speeds that are being reached anymore.

They finally stopped the motorcycle competition there a few years back after the death of a four-time champion. Not sure if the motorcycle competition at Pikes Peak will ever return.

[blueline]

The Pikes Peak course - all 12.42 miles.

Pikes Peak Course (June 2023).png (164.31 KiB) Viewed 1885 times

By Maxxl2 - Own work - derivate of PPM, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.p ... d=27038235

[Tom]

Do you know if any of it will be on TV? I stumbled on PP the day after a race a few years ago while driving from Denver to Colorado Springs. The variety and prep of the various cars was super cool -- much more interesting to me than a few dozen nearly-identical NASCAR racers. I don't know the classes, but there seemed to be a class for just about any car someone could think up. I drove to the top in a rental car, and it boggles my mind how racers can fly up that hill at speed, so close to cliffs, etc. Making it (much) worse, as I got closer and closer to the top, I started getting seriously woozy and light-headed. About 75% of the way up, there was a parking lot with shuttle cars to the peak, and I remember thinking "why would anyone want to get out of their own car and get on a shuttle." Well the answer became super obvious as I kept climbing. Pilots are required to use oxygen at that height -- and for good reason!

[blueline]

That's pretty awesome Tom! Looking at the course/road map, I cannot imagine what it would be like just driving to the top normally but you certainly described it well. Glad you were able to experience it, something I'll probably never get to do.

But can you imagine it at speed! If my arithmetic is correct, the current record time of 7:57 in the Volkswagen I.D. R would mean an average speed of around 93 mph, including all of the 180° hairpin turns of which there are a bunch! That must mean there are portions of the climb where terminal speeds might be in the 140-150 mph range. On a 14,110 ft high mountain with an elevation climb of 4,720 ft with 156 turns! Good grief. Insane.

Hurley Haywood is this year's Grand Marshall.

Not sure about TV coverage outside of streaming live on the Mobil 1 YouTube page which will probably be pretty good. Hopefully I can confirm that and any other options when Autoweek publishes their weekly racing schedule next week.

[blueline]

From Hagerty Media:

"The history of the Pikes Peak Hill Climb: A challenge for man and machine" written by longtime motorsports photographer Howard Koby.

https://www.hagerty.com/media/motorspor ... d568259d8a

The annual "Race to the Clouds" is the second oldest regularly scheduled race in the U.S., with the first one occurring in 1916.

"The 102th running of the Race to the Clouds—officially known as the Broadmoor International Pikes Peak Hill Climb, presented by Gran Turismo—is scheduled for June 23, 2024. You can find more info at www.ppihc.org."

HK_PP_Bobby-Unser-open-wheel-start-line-1963-PPIHC-Archieves-photo-winner-scaled.jpg (780.76 KiB) Viewed 1577 times

PPIHC Archives

HK_PP_1934-Louis-Unser-in-Perry-Sealed-Power-Special-1st-Place-Crop-PPIHC-Archives-scaled.jpg (361.05 KiB) Viewed 1577 times

PPIHC Archives

[RDMcG]

I was at a coffee reception yesterday. morning where there was a presentation by Pete Stout , editor of my favourite Porsche magazine ( 000 ) and David Donner who set the fastest lap ever for a production car at Pikes Peak, won his class and came second overall.

The car was a bone stock 992 Turbo S with the lightweight package and street tires ( Cup 2R) and made the hillclimb in under 10 minutes. (They do not use GT3s as the altitude causes power loss). Donner walked us through the prep and the race and showed us the video..https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0XNiMM_UXyw

It was a huge achievement to break 10 mins in a production car...here is a pic I took of Donner narrating the run:

IMG_4562.jpeg (1.73 MiB) Viewed 1531 times

They used page layouts from 000 magazine for the car livery:

IMG_4564.jpeg (2.87 MiB) Viewed 1531 times

Pete Stout, the editor was formerly editor of Panorama and started 000 as a personal dream. In my view it is the best mag out there ( I have no connection) but have subscribed from the very first issue.

The coffee was at Pfaff Motorsport in Toronto, and there were a couple of interesting cars hanging around including a green GT3RS the same as my old bus.. Only 3 were ever imported and this was the only one I had ever seen apart from my own.

IMG_4568.jpeg (8.08 MiB) Viewed 1531 times

IMG_4569.jpeg (1.69 MiB) Viewed 1531 times

IMG_4567.jpeg (4.95 MiB) Viewed 1531 times

000 has worked with Porsche on some special edition Sunderwunsch cars in very small numbers and will have a car to commemorate this event in the near future.

[blueline]

Good video! It certainly gives the viewer a taste of what the PPIHC is all about. Really bad conditions for the run with fog and complete lack of visibility for most of the climb. It went from horrible at the start (London pea soup) to really bad, back to horrible and then even worse for a bit. Obviously no grip either as David Donner said in the interview.

Still, phenomenal driving and a great run in pitiful conditions. The car sounded great too!