Motoring
Find out why every motorsport legend wants to touch the sky at Pikes Peak
Travis Pastrana and Romain Dumas take us to the clouds at America's epic hillclimb, where staying alive is a victory in itself.
Imagine gluing the famous Nurburgring Nordschleife race track to the side of a 4,300m (14,100 ft) mountain in the American Rockies, and then using that road as an annual time trail race with just a few crash barriers and a scattering of bales to break the near-vertical drops to the valleys below.
Pikes Peak is a must for any true motorsports fan
© Volkswagen
In reality, you take on the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb with little more than a wing (a large one for grip) and a prayer.
The first thing you think when you cross the line is not 'what's my time', but 'am I still alive?'
To find out if man and his machine won against Mother Nature and the mountain, watch our film from Pikes Peak below.
9 min
Pikes Peak 2018: The power of electricity
Watch Volkswagen break Sebastien Loeb and Peugeot's Pikes Peak hill climb record with an electric car.
"The first thing you think when you cross the line of the Pikes Peak International Hillclimb is not 'what's my time', but 'am I still alive?'" says Travis Pastrana.
Rightly, motorsport has got safer and safer, but with those advances some of the sport's gladiatorial elements have been sanitised. Not on Pikes Peak.
A mountain that touches the sky with its 4,300m
© Volkswagen
19.3km long and boasting 156 bends, the course for the hillclimb is now all tarmac. It's run for over a century, originally as a promotion for the entrepreneur who built the road, and, for all but the last 10 years, largely on gravel.
Rally champions, F1 and Indycar stars, and motorcycle legends have raced Pikes Peak. In the 1980s, left with powerful Group B rally cars and nowhere to race them, manufacturers like Audi, Peugeot and VW came to take on American racers on what they call 'America's Mountain'.
Sébastien Loeb also made history at Pikes Peak
© Flavien Duhamel/Red Bull Content Pool
Ever since, the millionaire manufacturers have headed back to go face to face against locals operating on budgets that would barely buy you a family car. In 2014, former WRC champion Sébastian Loeb set a seemingly unbeatable record time of 8m 13s in a Red Bull-backed Peugeot 208.
Another record set and thought hard to beat was Rhys Millen’s electric car record of 8m 58s.
Rhys Millen previously held the record for an electric car at Pikes Peak
© Alastair Ritchie/Red Bull Content Pool
So, when Volkswagen turned up in Colorado this year with a four-wheel drive electric car boasting the equivalent of 700bhp, Millen was first to say what many people were thinking about the I.D R and its driver, former Le Mans and Pikes Peak winner Romain Dumas. "I think we'll not only see my electric record go, but also the eight minute record be broken," said the New Zealander, who was on the mountain in a production Bentley Bentayga for a crack at Range Rover's course SUV record.
A car designed to beat records
© Volkswagen
Come race morning, not even the electric record looked likely, as delays for an accident allowed fog to float in and cloak the mountain. With millions of pounds invested, faces at VW were glum, as Dumas and his supercar catapulted off the start line faster than a Formula One car.
Eight minute barrier broken
Test passed!
© Volkswagen
Fans on the mountain cheered as the silent electric terror ran on invisible rails skywards. Glued to the live TV feed, the VW crew at the start area made like granite statues, as the filming helicopter started to lose sight of the car in the mist.
However, as fast as the mist enveloped the course, Dumas parted his way through the moisture and rocketed across the finish in 7m 57s, making a new record and a piece of racing history with the first sub-eight minute run in Pikes Peak history.
Bentley climbs to Pikes Peak SUV record
Rhys Millen sets a new record on the Bentley Bentayga
© Bentley
Bentley Bentayga - Pikes Peak Winner SUV
© Bentley
Rhys Millen and the Bentley Bentayga celebrate win
© Bentley
Bentley Bentayga performs at 2018 Pikes Peak
© Bentley
The Bentley Bentayga has set a new record at Pikes Peak in the SUV category. With world championship driver and Pikes Peak veteran Rhys Millen behind the wheel, the Bentayga completed the 156-turn course in just 10 minutes, 49.9 seconds.
What an incredible machine. I had a great run - the car was planted all the way up and gave me the confidence I needed to push hard