Pikes Peak record run in 2011

[BCBirk]

The car is a Suzuki SX-4 "Special"

http://youtu.be/MBaIlQOGgwc

[Kitcat]

Wow! How do you learn that course? Amazing how much he was tossed around inside the car. His shoulder belts look lose. Loved the shot of the hummingbird at 3 minute mark!

[notakit]

That wasn't a hummingbird, that was a flying insect as seen through a Go Pro camera.

[MoBoost]

The Pikes Peak event is a must see! An incredible assortment of vehicles driven by very gutsy drivers. You don't want to make a mistake there!

[BMW RACER]

I've been lucky enough to have raced Pikes Peak '87 '92 '93' 94 for Team Mitsubishi.

It's a fantastic event. You're there for the whole week doing practice runs (A third of the hill at a time) and doing qualifying (half the hill) The ONLY time you get to run the whole hill in anger is your one timed run! I didn't get to the point that I could close my eyes and remember the whole run was the third year. The first year I remembered the corners I didn't want to go off on (they all have guard rails now). The second year I remembered each corner as I got to it. By the third year I could close my eyes and do the whole run.

Nobuhiro has been doing this event for many years, and he is a Monster, he's well over 6'. He's very good. But my true hero is Ari Vatenen. I was lucky enough to be there in 1987 when he got out of the car, not a bead of sweat, not even out of breath! Like Ayrton Senna, there's Ari Vatenen and then there's everybody else.

Check out this video:
Ari vatanen pikes peak - YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TKgeCQGu_ug)

[Alaskossie]

John,

Notwithstanding Monster Kajima's record-setting drive on almost all tarmac in 2011, the Pikes Peak Hillclimb will never be what it once was: all dirt, and no guardrails. Your inclusion of the film clip, "Climb Dance," brought it all back.

I was a spectator at Pikes Peak in 1988 when Ari Vatanen and Juho Kankunen ran Peugeot 405 T16 Group B "Evolution" cars, and Ari set a new course record. We watched ann early morning of practice, and then the race itself.

The course was 12.4 miles long, all dirt, with 156 turns, no Armco, and frightening, steep drop-offs. I was at the Devil's Playground at 13,000 feet when Ari charged up the hill, through a mid-course snowstorm, and set a new course record. I could hear his car leave the start line far below, and eventually he came into view. From my high vantage point, I could see at least 15 hairpin turns below me. Ari flew around them like a slalom skier, car never pointing straight ahead, power-sliding right to the road's edge time and time again, and leaving a huge rooster-tail of dust behind. What a drive!

John, you are so lucky to have driven the Pikes Peak race during its glory days.

[Alaskossie]

John,

You might compare the 6:00 point in the 2011 Monster Tajima film clip with the 2:55 point in the 1988 Ari Vatanen "Climb Dance" film. I believe it is the same corner (paved in 2011, unpaved in 1988), or at least a very similar corner.

Which version is the more thrilling and skillful demonstration of driving courage and car control??

Thank goodness we have a film like Climb Dance, because a hell of a lot has been lost forever, with the paving of the Pikes Peak Hillclimb course.