"Monster" smashes the Pikes Peak Hill Climb record.

The Pikes Peak Hill Climb is an oft-forgotten motor sport event and yet, is a true test of engineering greatness and driving grit. For the first time since 2007, the course record was broken by the driving genius, Nobuhiro “Monster” Tajima.

The in-game Escudo and the real-life version.

I only became aware of the race’s existence playing Gran Turismo 2 on  the Playstation, around ten years ago. The quickest car in the game was the Suzuki Escudo Pikes Peak Version, a near-1000 horsepower, four-wheel drive rally car, aesthetically based on a Suzuki Vitara. The car was an absolute monster in the game and once purchased, left the player incapable of losing again. Tajima has seemed similarly unbeatable driving the Suzuki and its descendants, over the past fifteen years.

The hill climb is set on the Pikes Peak mountain in Colorado. The course is a 13 mile mix of gravel and tarmac, twisting upwards to the summit of the mountain. The race itself dates back to 1916. There is now a multitude of different classes of rally car, including recognisable rally favourites such as Subaru Imprezas and Mitsubishi Evos, as well as open-wheel race specials and the fastest of all, the “Unlimited” class.

Rhys Millen's insane Hyundai Pikes Peak racer.

The Unlimited class does what is says on the tin, offering teams and drivers the chance to experiment with the limits of what is possible for rally racing. My personal favourite is the bizarre looking Red Bull Hyundai that has been raced by Rhys Millen (The son of race legend Rod Millen) in recent years. This is a car that resembles a Le Mans car from a distance, but is actually much smaller, offering 700hp in a body that weighs around 800Kg, giving a much higher power-to-weight ratio than a modern Le Mans racer can offer. The four-wheel-drive system means that this immense power is spread evenly across the car. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zK6EN1LpHio&feature) Pikes Peak is on of few races in which engineers can go wild and experiment with the absolute limits of a car’s performance.

The record breaking Suzuki SX4, a modern version of the Escudo, puts out 910hp, but weighs more than the Rhys Millen Hyundai and looks a little more civilised. Yet, Millen could only manage a time over ten minutes. The Suzuki SX4, driven perfectly by Tajima completed the course in 9 minutes, 51 seconds, the first ever sub-ten minute time in the history of the race.

The 2011 Suzuki SX4 - Pikes Peak Version

Tajima himself setup Suzuki’s in-house motor sport division, Suzuki-Sports and has been racing at Pikes Peak since 1992. Tajima’s only worthy adversary was Rod Millen, who himself was the record holder at the course from 1994, in an insane 800hp Toyota Celica, until Tajima broke the record in 2007. However, Tajima finally broke the ten minute barrier this weekend and has now surely asserted himself as the outright master of the course.

Unfortunately, modern motor sport has become increasingly restricted, which offers safer circumstances for drivers and spectators, but doesn’t excite the mad scientist inside me. The Pikes Peak Unlimited class offers an intriguing blend of bonkers, yet skilful engineering and undaunted drivers pushing every component of the car to their limit. If there is a similar type of circuit racing that exists, then please let me know. If there isn’t, I’d be more than willing to help with the insurance papers to set it up.