Here’s some exciting on-board footage from a Yamaha R1 racing up this year’s Pikes Peak International Hill Climb. This particular rider posted a 11:02.201 which was good for 2nd in class, 4th fastest motorcycle and 14th overall. The overall motorcycle record was a 9:52.819 set by Carlin Dunne on a Ducati Multistrada 1200 S. Even though the course was fully paved this year, Ducati still though the adventure bike had more benefits than an all out street bike. If I had to guess, I would say it probably has to do with acceleration torque coming out of the tight bends.
European drifting has always had its own distinctive style. I don’t know whether its from the mix of cultures or just different platforms to build drift cars on, but it’s always fun to watch.
The Raleigh Cars and Coffee event has been moved to a different location due to Brier Creek becoming uncomfortable with how many people were showing up. The new location is Waverly Place in Cary still on the first Saturday of … Continue reading →
The last of the coverage from this year’s Pikes Peak International Hill Climb is still trickling in. I came across a couple of videos of the Toyota Motorsports Group EV P002 and Monster Tajima’s E-Runner that presented a nice opportunity to do a side by side comparison. What makes this interesting is that the E-Runner DNF’ed due to technical failure, but was dominating the EV class during practice. Nobuhiro “Monster” Tajima beat Fumio Nutahara in the Toyota by almost 13 seconds on the 5.16 mile lower section of the course during qualifying. Tajima had set up the E-Runner with a mixed tarmac and gravel suspension settings on the first day because he was expecting a lot of gravel to be pulled onto the road surface from the side of the road which never happened. Monster switched to a faster pure tarmac setup for the later practice runs on the middle and top sections of the course. Nutahara won the EV class in the TMG EV P002 on race day and was less than 30 seconds off of the overall record set by Rhys Millen in his Formula D car. Monster Tajima DNF’ed with a motor failure, but what if he had been able to finish? Would he have been in contention to defend his overall record? After watching these two videos, I think he could have done it. This is footage of both the Toyota Motorsports Group EV P002 and Monster Tajima’s E-Runner on the top section of the course on the last day of practice before race day. Identical course and conditions make this an excellent comparison of speed. The two cars aren’t worlds apart, but the E-Runner is visibly faster and seems more stable. I think it definitely would have been within the realm of possibility for the E-Runner to pull a 30 second gap on the Toyota over the length of the 12.42 mile course. Hopefully Monster Tajima can get the kinks worked out for the race next year and put an EV on top of the overall podium.
Video 1: Fumio Nutahara in the Toyota Motorsports Group EV P002 practice run on the top section of the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb 2012.
Video 2: Monster Tajima in the E-Runner on the same course on the same day:
Motor Trend’s senior feature editor, Johnny Lieberman, bids farewell to their long-term Cadillac CTS-V by featuring it on the latest episode of Epic Drives. The V-Wagon gets shipped to Germany so Lieberman can make one more beer run to his favorite Belgian brewers (he’s a home brewer and beer judge). From there he takes the wagon to the Nurburgring to let Johnny O’Connell of Cadillac Racing take another shot at the CTS lap record which was set by John Heinricy in an automatic CTS-V sedan during GM’s development program. Lieberman’s hope was to shave a couple of seconds off the record with the wagon since it’s a 6-speed.
