History just made by ex WRC driver Sebastian Loeb

875 hp + 875 kg = 08:13.878

blistering the current world record. (over 85 mph average speed)

Live right now at:

http://www.revvolution.com/event/ppihc

http://bcove.me/7cjhf35i








[Edited on June 30, 2013 at 2:28 PM. Reason : r]

6/30/2013 2:06:34 PM

yay a 206

6/30/2013 4:01:33 PM

On the flipside, far faster records were a foregone conclusion, as more and more of the course has been paved (and ultimately now the whole thing being paved ).



[Edited on June 30, 2013 at 5:06 PM. Reason : that said, this was total destruction of last year's new record on the fully paved course]

6/30/2013 5:04:19 PM

makes me wonder if they really need that much downforce now with so much more lateral grip available

7/1/2013 1:21:03 AM

^^ yep with the entire thing being paved if records weren't broken I'd have been disappoint.

You don't have the tire gamble of "do I get something semi dirt capable, or just ignore it and make up the time with slicks on asphalt?"

It's still an awesome race and an epic achievement.... Just that for me it's not as epic as it once was.

^ air gets thin near the top and even gravity is less.

[Edited on July 1, 2013 at 7:34 AM. Reason : .]

7/1/2013 7:33:07 AM

Quote :

"All other things being equal, an increase in altitude from sea level to 30 000 ft (9144 metres) causes a weight decrease of about 0.29%. (An additional factor affecting apparent weight is the decrease in air density at altitude, which lessens an object's buoyancy.[5] This would increase a person's apparent weight at an altitude of 30 000 ft by about 0.08%)"

Anyway, pavement sucks.

7/1/2013 9:09:29 AM

Awesome event, but now that it's entirely paved these new records mean nothing compared to the old ones. Just not comparable.

Does Loeb not have a WRC contract anymore??

7/1/2013 9:10:35 AM

Loeb is technically retired from WRC. I think he's running 4 races this year for Citroen and that's it.

7/1/2013 9:53:44 AM

^^^and Pike's Peak is just slightly over 14000 tall.

^thanks.

7/1/2013 10:09:55 AM

http://sundayafternoonclub.blogs.topgear.com/2013/07/01/sebastien-loeb-obliterates-pikes-peak-record/

Quote :

"When we spoke to Sebastien Loeb before his Pikes Peak run, he hoped to take more than 45 seconds off the previous record. Well today he did, and a lot more than that. He reached the summit in an astonishing time of 8m 13.878s – a minute and a half under the previous record and twice what he’d hoped for. Count us stunned.. but not surprised. All week Peugeot Sport’s 208 T16 has torn up ‘America’s mountain’ to such an extent that we’ve had to re-calibrate our sense of speed. Even with competition from Rhys Millen’s 900hp Hyundai PM580T, and Le Mans winner Romain Dumas, Loeb’s pace in the Unlimited class has been the equivalent of Usain Bolt rocking up at a primary school’s sports day. For his run, the mountain was kind to him – maybe because he’s a rookie. The conditions for the 12.42 mile, 156 turn course were as good as they could’ve been: dry, yet cool at the top (to help the turbos). Shortly after Seb crossed the finish line the weather changed as the top of the mountain experienced four seasons in the space of an hour. It decided to rain, dry up, snow and then throw a tablecloth of fog completely over the top of the mountain that refused to clear. If Seb’s run had been half an hour later, the outcome for his race to the clouds could’ve been a completely different story. Even so, it wasn’t just Seb who broke records. Pikes Peak legend Nobuhiro “Monster” Tajima set a new electric record in his 2013 E-Runner Pikes Peak Special, clocking a time of 9:46.530. That’s faster than he ever managed in his petrol powered Suzuki SX4 –the first car to ever break the magical ten minute barrier which shows how seriously some are taking ‘leccy powered cars. The times are literally changing at Pikes Peak, but we reckon that Seb’s record will stand for a long, long time. Check back in the next few days for a full gallery on today’s events. And now Seb has ticked Pikes Peak off his bucket list, what do you think he should do next? "

7/1/2013 12:59:37 PM

all paved? time for someone in an F1 car

[Edited on July 1, 2013 at 9:16 PM. Reason : ]

7/1/2013 9:16:04 PM

Quote :

"All other things being equal, an increase in altitude from sea level to 30 000 ft (9144 metres) causes a weight decrease of about 0.29%. (An additional factor affecting apparent weight is the decrease in air density at altitude, which lessens an object's buoyancy.[5] This would increase a person's apparent weight at an altitude of 30 000 ft by about 0.08%)"

This is discussing the very, very slight decrease in gravity due to the increased radius from the earth (see: universal gravitation equation). That's a nearly negligible effect, especially with that tiny fraction being partially counteracted by the bouyancy issue. It's splitting tiny, tiny hairs.

The bigger deal, and what the original statement was about, was aerodynamic downforce. Probably part of the reason they have such large wings and devices is due to the fact that air density at the top would be something on the order of ~50-60% of that at sea level. This proportionately reduces the amount of downforce generated by a given wing.

Another thing is that more downforce = more betta when it comes to cornering. The tradeoff is drag, but a course like Pike's Peak isn't ever gonna allow big speed for long, anyway, so they'd rather have the grip (especially historically, when a lot of it was dirt).


As a side note, with enough turbo, you can avoid peak power losses with altitude--it just spools a lot slower, so you get less and less power under the RPM curve.

7/3/2013 12:31:36 AM

VW sets out to break the electric car record (8' 57.118") with its I.D. R custom-made racer.

Ends up breaking all-time record from 2013 (see top) with a 7' 57.148" run!

https://www.motorsport.com/hillclimb/news/dumas-shatters-pikes-peak-record-in-electric-vw-1047461

More info about car: https://www.motorsport.com/hillclimb/news/vw-reveals-electric-pikes-peak-contender-1029105

Basically:

2,425 lbs
671 hp
479 lb-ft
AWD
0-62 mph in 2.25 sec
Car attached to a MASSIVE WING

The car is bloody gorgeous... see short video clip here:
https://www.motor1.com/news/247945/vw-id-r-pikes-peak-powertrain









[Edited on June 24, 2018 at 5:17 PM. Reason : ]

6/24/2018 5:15:41 PM

Hill climbs are perfect for EVs. No loss of performance with elevation and their batteries only have to last for a few miles.

6/25/2018 9:03:37 AM

I feel like you're doing that "electric cars are dumb and only usable in this small sample size of one, and the only real cars are manual naturally aspirated gasoline burning manual cars with >1hp/10lb, a manual, and low fenders" thing...

6/26/2018 12:06:18 AM

pikes peak was way better before it was paved all the way to the top

6/26/2018 5:17:17 AM

^agreed

^^Just pointing out a perfect niche for them in motorsports. In contrast to the borefest that is Formula E, this is a home run.

[Edited on June 27, 2018 at 9:03 AM. Reason : ]

6/27/2018 9:03:27 AM

This new record is nuts, I'm amazed how much faster they went, still more in the bag with hybrid tech, I believe

6/29/2018 9:08:47 PM

Watch the video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CwZbvPY_4aE

7/8/2018 6:40:25 PM

^helicopter camera

https://youtu.be/FHXkzE0kR7s?t=44s

1994
first person
dirt
motorcycles

7/10/2018 9:48:35 AM

Nice

7/11/2018 11:32:41 PM

that thing has a sickening sound (in a bad way)

7/22/2018 2:33:56 PM

Seriously VW?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T6nYdHwgCIk

(on-board footage from a terrible angle (useless), and that too, just for 3 minutes)

7/22/2018 11:56:09 PM