Sorry for not paying attention the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb this year but with the whole course paved from top to bottom, all the race lost its magic for me. Plus, Nobuhiro Tajima, after dominating the unlimited class for years and breaking the 10 minutes barrier last year, chose to participate in the electric vehicle class in this year's edition. Well, you can't blame him!
Unfortunately, the race didn't go as well as expected for him and he was forced to abandon. The 850 Hp LOVEFab NSX failed to finish too and there was a huge Lancer Evolution crash that you can watch here... And oh yes, Rhys Millen scored his first Pikes Peak victory with a 9:46. time, just 18 thousands of a second ahead of Le Mans winner Romain Dumas. You can find pictures of "Monster" Tagima's electric beast in the gallery below and let's wish him better luck for next year!
This is one of the very first videos featuring Rhys Millen's Genesis PM580 which may i remind you shares nothing with the road going Huyndai Genesis but its 3.8L V6 which has been stroked out to 4.1L and thanks to two turbochargers now produces a scary 775 Hp. Not one of the highest power figures we've seen in the Pikes Peak before, even including this year with Tagima bringing a 900+ Hp Suzuki Monster just like he used to. But with a weight of 861 Kg (1900 pounds) and a Le Mans Prototype-like body things get a lot more interesting.
The Genesis PM580's light weight has been achieved thanks to a very compact carbon fiber body, which you will notice by yourself, is a little bit narrower than Race Prototypes. This is of course in order to reduce weight but also to help Rhys dive through the narrower sections of the Pikes Peak course. The chassis has been built from scratch to welcome the central mounted V6 and meet the handling requirements of this very demanding race. One last thing, the Twin turbocharged V6 makes an awesome noise!
Other useful Pikes Peak related links here and here.
The legendary pikes Peak Hill Climb has always been one of my favourite rallying events of year. It's a challenge that both construtors and drivers love to take. The Pikes Peak's course is one of the most challenging, with a constantly changing weather and a very demanding track in terms of driving and car performance.
Rod Millen, now 58, held for 13 years the record of 10:04:06 set in a Toyota Celica in 1994 until Tagima "Monster" beat him by 3 seconds in his Suzuki XL7 in 2007. Today his son Rhys, with already the two wheel drive class record from the 2009 edition under his belt, decides to take on the unlimited class challenge with the ambition of being the first in the Pikes Peak Hill Climb History to go under 10 minutes and bring back the record the Millen family.
While the car's name is Genesis PM580, it doesn't share any body part with the Hyundai Genesis Coupe exept maybe the 3.8 L V6. The body is fully built from carbon fiber and the car looks more like a Le Mans racer than the hill climbers we used to see over the past years. The car features a massive rear wing placed very low compared to the giant rear wings that we used to see on the Pikes Peak unlimited class competitors. To read a fully detailed report that includes every little detail on this very particular rallying beast, head on to Autoblog.
Last year Ford introduced its factory backed 800+ Hp Pikes Peak Spec Fiesta with Professinal WRC driver Marcus Grönholm on the wheels to take on the challenge. However, they failed to win the event beaten by the unstoppable Tagima who failed to match his 2007 record. This year, we have new contenders, new ambitions and new beasts. So let's see if Rhys Millen will live up to his reputation of favourite in this year's race.
Here's the footage of the two wheel drive class record run by Rhys Millen in the 2009 edition:
