Monster Tajima smashes 10-minute mark at Pikes Peak, ascends in 9:51.278

what an epic event....

and under 10 minutes. damn. Jeff Zwart, who has won this event more than once, did a 11:07 in a prepared 997.2 GT2RS, for comparison. insanity.

 

I have driven up it a couple of times (with more of it unpaved), and it is just plain scary at any speed. There were times I was crawling at 10 MPH on the outside of some of those turns, without guardrails, and thought I was going too fast. When the outside of the corner is at your right (across the car) and another car is coming the other way, you think you are going to fall off.

Then to top it off, when you exit the car/truck at the top, the altitude makes you even more shaky. Good thing they serve ice cream in the tourist shop at the top.

Took me about an hour.

 

I have been to the top of Pikes Peak and those guy's are insane!!! I remember screaming "Dad you too close to the edge I wanna go home" lol!

 

I saw it posted on FB. pretty cool that it's still street legal (and 1,000+ mile road trip worthy!)

I'd like to see someone buy a 458, prep it for Pikes Peak, then drive it there from SoCal, do the event, and drive it home.

 

made me want to see ari vatanen's run again!! and he was fighting against the car when this one seems more efficient.

 

Im not so stoked about the whole course getting paved.....

 

Of course, it will always be debated whether Tajima's time would have been possible without the upper part of the course having been paved. But the footage in the video is spectacular, and I think that both the drivers and the spectators lining the course, especially in the lower paved section (where it appears that most of them were not standing behind guardrails) are rather insane!

Unfortunately, I did not see the name "Unser" on the list of participants, though at least Paul Dallenbach was entered.

 

About how long does it take to drive the course at "normal" speeds?

 

Seeing as that was 35+yr's ago and taking the tourist mph atleast 2hr's I would guess. A simply awesome place and lord you can see for miles and miles. Even without the racing it is a truelly emotional experience for someone who loves the outdoor's. The previous pic provided pretty much say's everything:
Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

I've codriven Pikes Peak Hillclimb twice. While its getting paved and there is more traction, there is also now gaurdrails and more drainage ditches that narrow the raceline.

I was at Mt Washington Hillclimb which was also scheduled for this past weekend. IMHO, Mt Washington autoroad is much scarier than Pikes Peak. Its way narrower and has jumps and bumps. Don't think the record breaking incar has been posted yet but you can get an idea from Travis Pastrana's run.

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4BZh-7hkNe4[/ame]

 

Wow! It will be some time before that record is broken again... amazing.

Jedi