The legendary Pikes Peak International Hill Climb is one of the major rallying events that started back in 1916. The race takes place every year in the Colorado (USA) mountains. It is to rallying, what Le Mans is to prototype racing.
The course starts at an elevation of 2 862 m (9,390 ft.) and ends up at 4 300 m (14,110 ft.). It's 19.98 Km (12.42 miles) long and is composed of 156 turns. It's also a mixture of gravel and pavement with the paved part 9.65 Km (6 miles) long.
The so called "Race to The Clouds" features numerous categories that include quads, bikes, sidecars, open wheels and even trucks! Of course the most popular category is the Unlimited, in which competitors usally bring cars exclusively built for the event, with power figures sometimes up to 1000 Hp. The Suzuki XL7 Pikes Peak competitor shown in the picture above belongs to the unlimited category, it is driven by Nobuhiro Tajima who by the way holds the absolute course record of 10:01.408. This record braking run was achieved in the 2007 edition of the race. Tagima "Monster" brought a lot of interesting Pikes Peak competitors like the so familiar to Gran Turismo players (including me), the Suzuki Escudo Pikes Peak Version or the 2009 edition winner: the Suzuki SX4 Pikes Peak Version.
