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View Full Version : Pikes Peak Hill Climb, Colorado Springs, USA



sandyr1
21-Apr-10, 03:06
For the motoring enthusiast! Worth a look.
Was just reading about Pikes Peak Hill climb in the USA/ checked youtube and there are lots of excitement on there, especially the 800 hp Ford Fiesta!
Also was reminiscing about the Rumster Hill Climb many years ago/ don't know if they still do it. I remember taking my father's car there..... aghh...did some damage.

The Drunken Duck
21-Apr-10, 08:02
Played the course on a Colin Macrae game, didnt realise it was a real track until a while later when I saw it on ESPN.

Its like the rallying equivalent of the Nurburgring .. awesome track.

XR2
21-Apr-10, 12:33
Yip there are some mental spec'd cars in that hill climb, its a fair length and height too!

Sadly Rumster hill climb is no more, the heavy machinery used to harvest the trees ruined the tarmac. They have sprints at Golspie kart track instead now which are good too.

upolian
21-Apr-10, 13:11
Awesome track! very demanding,last time iw atched a video was a metro 6r4 giving it licks on that track,was fair impressive.

As for the 800bhp fiesta........is that the silver mk6 with cossie running gear,dogbox etc,hits 60mph in like 2.9?mental bit of kit!!

sandyr1
21-Apr-10, 13:17
Awesome track! very demanding,last time iw atched a video was a metro 6r4 giving it licks on that track,was fair impressive.

As for the 800bhp fiesta........is that the silver mk6 with cossie running gear,dogbox etc,hits 60mph in like 2.9?mental bit of kit!!

Yup/ finishes at about 15,000 feet high!. Takes the breath away from man & car. There are amazing vids on youtube......

upolian
21-Apr-10, 13:20
Yup/ finishes at about 15,000 feet high!. Takes the breath away from man & car. There are amazing vids on youtube......

Was going to say....with the climate changing the higher they get how does it affect the performance of the car?you would think such a rise in height would affect the air/fuelling,the ecu's must get confused[lol]

Ive seen alot of them on youtube,but i cant help but look for 'wrc' videos

as for the ken block 'gymkhana practice' video<<<search for that some amazing driving!

George Brims
21-Apr-10, 18:39
Back in the 1980s I used to work on a 14,000 foot high mountain (Mauna Kea, Hawaii). That was before cars other than expensive types had ECUs, and fuel injection wasn't on many cars either. Certainly our company Ford Broncos (4WD deathtraps) had none of that modern stuff. Tuning them was a bit of an art, as a vehicle that ran well on the upper bits wouldn't run that well down below, and vice versa. You had to mess with ignition timing as well as fuel mixture. The compromise was a vehicle that ran, but not particularly well, at all altitudes. When EFI vehicles came in, that situation improved greatly. The main thing is the airflow sensor, which allows the ECU to tailor the fuel supply from the injectors to the amount of air coming in. A good sized turbo or supercharger would have been a help with the older ones, but they had a bad enough time making people behave on that road as it was. Above 9,000 feet it was unpaved and pretty bumpy, grades of 1 in 5 in places, and you hand some guy the keys to a company vehicle with big wheels and 4WD. The temptation was too great for many. We had people working for us that were a problem to schedule up and down because no-one would get in the car with them if they drove. A young grad student from the UK whose hobby was rallying claimed he could drive the part from the 9,000 foot dorm to the summit at 70, in either direction, then proceeded to prove it. He only got to drive that one time!

As for Pikes Peak, not only do they race cars up it, they race mountain bikes *down* it. Mental.

ducati
21-Apr-10, 18:43
God, I understood all that, I am so sad [lol]

upolian
21-Apr-10, 19:32
^^^ ditto [lol]

I can imagine adjusting Electronic fuel injection to suit high n low altitudes,a royal pain the bum!

Im assuming no cars running throttle bodies/carbs run on places like the peak?as they would just suck in the dust? or would a sock for the carbs be sufficient enough to keep the dust at bay?

Not sure about back then,but now they must be running methanol injection to keep the inlet temperatures down during this mad run?or are they running just silly sized intercoolers and radiators? Would like to find the spec of the cars running this track,would make an interesting read!

search youtube for this.....Pikes Peak Hill Climb Peugeot 405 T16 <<<<He takes his hand of to block the sun,at a silly speed,WHAT THE...........? hes mad!

maidenmania
21-Apr-10, 19:56
I remember Audi took their S1 rally Quattro there in mid 80's and set the (then) record time apparently the vibration was so bad the view out windscreen was just a blur :eek:

oh yes and it was a woman (michele mounton) who set the record time :eek::eek:

George Brims
21-Apr-10, 23:30
oh yes and it was a woman (michele mounton) who set the record time :eek::eek:
Well of course it was. Women are lighter, which gives them an advantage. Believe it or not, some people have used that as an excuse for getting their arse handed to them by Danica Patrick in Indycars.

Speaking of which, great race at Long Beach this weekend, with a Brit coming in second (Justin Wilson). Mike Wilson and our boy Dario were 10th and 12th.

Dog-eared
22-Apr-10, 13:07
Bikes race at Pikes Peak too.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g_1uhafcb1o&playnext_from=TL&videos=36AxbnYWH7o


Nice sounding hillclimb car.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=paClRcT39HY&playnext_from=TL&videos=pVjG8Yqmf0I


Sabine Schmitz is a fast lady and hot with it !

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m1pklvKKnd0&playnext_from=TL&videos=PlogO0d3r5o

George Brims
22-Apr-10, 18:55
Haha I remember that thing of Sabine torturing a Ford Transit. It's amazing how good the road holding can be in big boxy vehicles. I got stuck with a Dodge Caravan from a rental place once, and was amazed how good that was. Considering they're usually driven by suburban mums with screaming kids, talking illegally on their cell phones, it's as well they handle like that.

Dog-eared
22-Apr-10, 22:20
Sabine drives the "Nurnburg Taxi" , taking people around the ring in a fast car. At 140 Mph. Sideways in the corners. Check her out on Youtube.

She's one of the few people to run a car at high speed every day for a living and is therefore very relaxed about it.

One of the best handling vans I've had was a diesel Vauxhall Astramax. Until a thrash to Perth on late, empty roads warped the head.