Pikes Peak International Hill Climb 2011

[Neal]

So Nobuhiro "Monster" Tajima finally breaks the 10 minute barrier with a 9:51.278 run. This year may well have been his last chance to achieve this before the whole route is paved.

 

[sumbrownkid]

How much power is his death star producing?

 

[CodeRedR51]

This was mentioned in another thread, but kudos to Jeff Zwart for his 2nd place performance in 2WD Time Attack class (by 3 seconds) after driving his brand new Porsche 911 GT2 RS 1,132 miles from California to compete this weekend. 👍

 

[Eunos_Cosmo]

Some interesting things to note:

Paul Walker drove the pace car
Tajima's car is f'ing nuts. I'm (very) briefly visible in this one.

A guy drove off the mountain, but he's ok


The traffic going down was by far the worst I've ever seen. I don't think I'll go back. Really glad I got to see it one last time before the whole thing is paved. Next year formula cars will come and ruin the fun.

Monster's driving is really an art form. I was standing down the road from the corner at the ski area, a tight right hander. Most drivers took the corner than accelerated straight and took the next corner, a fast left hand sweeper leading into a tighter right hand corner. Monster took the corner and in one beautiful, continuous drift, nailed the next two without interruption. It is astonishing to watch him run. Makes even Rhys Millen look amateur honestly.

The Porsche GT2 was extremely fast, but almost totally silent.

 

[CodeRedR51]

The Porsche GT2 was extremely fast, but almost totally silent.

Save for the safety items, it was bone stock. 👍

 

[hellnback]

Sorry, I might be old school here but I still consider the quickest car to go up there is either Millen's Tacoma or the Celica, which held the record. Heck the Celica did 10:04 when all (?) of the top wasn't paved... you don't think that paving is worth at LEAST that 13 secs?

I've been told personally from people that ran the hill Millen sandbagged the 10 mins, always missing so Toyota would continue the funding, he could've had it with either car.

Oh well, soon it will be all paved and F1 cars will rule? A changing of the guard so to speak like when the Group B's first decided to attack the hill.

 

[Eunos_Cosmo]

I'm sorry, but setting up a car for an entirely gravel course is much easier than setting up one for a mixture of both. Hell Tajima was running DOT Falken Ziex street tires. Tajima's car ran almost the exact same time when the track was about 75% (perhaps more) gravel. Also note that Tajima was always within a few seconds of Rod Millen throughout the '90s, without any major support or sponsors.

Rhys Millen's red bull car this year was massively faster on the paved section (8 seconds or something) but because of the gravel section, it lost by something like 30 seconds, so clearly a car designed for pavement wasn't faster. Tajima had some engine issues and Millen had some braking issues.

 

[CodeRedR51]

Good video I found here with nothing but engine sounds. Anyone have any more info on the Toyota? at 1:30?

 

[Ardius]

Oh well, soon it will be all paved and F1 cars will rule? A changing of the guard so to speak like when the Group B's first decided to attack the hill.

F1? No, F3 and sprint/hill-climb specials are most likely. Very few if any actual F1 cars have ever been used at events like this (though I will probably be corrected on this) as they are very expensive to maintain and most of the old ones are now in museums or used as track day experience cars.
Most tarmac hillclimbs and sprints have seperate classes for F3 and open-wheel formula cars to compete in, so its predictable it will happen here too.

 

[Famine]

And how much power would a naturally aspirated F1 engine produce at 14,000ft?

 

[Eunos_Cosmo]

Enough.

 

[Submerged]

Some interesting things to note:

Paul Walker drove the pace car
Tajima's car is f'ing nuts. I'm (very) briefly visible in this one.



Monster's driving is really an art form. I was standing down the road from the corner at the ski area, a tight right hander. Most drivers took the corner than accelerated straight and took the next corner, a fast left hand sweeper leading into a tighter right hand corner. Monster took the corner and in one beautiful, continuous drift, nailed the next two without interruption. It is astonishing to watch him run. Makes even Rhys Millen look amateur honestly.

The Porsche GT2 was extremely fast, but almost totally silent.

That was the weirdest video of a racing car I have ever heard.

The engine noise got quieter the further up he went. Guess it shows that altitude really does make a difference.

Also, some of the corners seemed to be apex'd slightly differently than I would have thought, for the fastest way around it?

With Famine's pointed question about the F1 NA engines, they'll probably stall on the way up.... 80's to early 90's turbos in qualifying trim probably do the job.... if it was reliable enough, of course.

 

[Eunos_Cosmo]

Stall on the way up? Are you serious? My 1994 stock Integra LS made it to the summit just fine, still pulling from 5mph in 2nd gear without issue.

 

[Submerged]

It was more in jest than in seriousness. I forgot to affix a smiley face there. I am sure it will still be fine to drive and everything, just would not have as much power as an similar engine with turbo at that altitude.

 

[Eunos_Cosmo]

That is very true. Turbo V6 seems to be a very effective tool at PP. The top 3 cars this year all had turbo V6 engines.

 

[tw99]

Pretty cool videos guys! I can only dream of driving like this.

I don't understand why not bring PP in to GT5 or other racing games. Add some realistic experience like altitude performance changes.

 

[Eunos_Cosmo]

A few of my pics from the event:

I wanted to be on the dirt section because it is the last time I will be able to, so we watched from the ski-area

 

[Omnis]

Rhys Millen must be really bad at hillclimb if his machine is 10 seconds off 10 minutes. Last year he spun twice.

 

[Eunos_Cosmo]

He isn't as committed anywhere on the track as Tajima. He also had some sort of brake failure on the last portion of the course.

 

[fissionproject]

He isn't as committed anywhere on the track as Tajima. He also had some sort of brake failure on the last portion of the course.

damn that would be scary @ PP. i bet he's sure glad it happened towards the end and not the beginning lol

 

[lmanion]

His incar looks like he is ******** himself when he gets to the gravel and watching his run and monsters run back to back you can really notice how much more commited Monster was.

 

[Pezzarinho17]

That is very true. Turbo V6 seems to be a very effective tool at PP. The top 3 cars this year all had turbo V6 engines.

2014 F1 cars anyone?