Coworker sent me this video:
Pikes Peak 2010 – Jeff Zwart In Car from Will Roegge on Vimeo.
A bit long but worth the watch. A guy does a speed-run of Pike’s Peak in a Porsche GT3 Cup. My heart was in my THROAT for the dirt-road parts just watching him wrestle with the steering wheel while his uber-powerful car slid around like a hog-on-ice!
Also the acceleration that kart can do on inclines!!! WOW!
One question, from my research the GT3 Cup uses a naturally-aspirated flat-six, but in the AMAZING soundtrack of the video (Seriously, turn that shit up!) I hear a high-pitched whine from the motor. I would assume that was turbo-whine, but the Cup has none. Any idea what that delightful sound is?
And the driver? Balls-of-Steel!!!
**Update** Multiple sources have informed me that the whine is a square-cut gearbox. Cool thanks to all who let me know.
Damn! That was in-freakin’-tense! I don’t know where he fits ’em in there – cuz they gotta be HUGE!
Friend in my Colorado days used to run in the 2-stroke dirt bike event. I’ve been up the peak more than once, going reasonably fast for not being death-defying and I said he was crazy and he said “If you go over the side on a bike or in a car, you’re pretty well screwed either way and I like bikes.” He ran in the high fourteens back them. As I recall it’s 12 and change miles and 144 turns, and I was offered a ride on the back at 75% speed and I politely declined. Leave that to the daredevils.
I drove up Pike’s in a rented Buick SUV once upon a time. At the recommended speed, it’s a long way to the top (if you want to rock and roll)… but oh so worth it.
The guys who do it like this …. that’s nuts. Around the 8-minute mark he breaks the tree line and gets into the really hairy turns. The dropoffs pretty much look like they end somewhere around … oh … Mexico.