2009 Pikes Peak Challenge
A UK team is aiming to be the first to beat the ten-minute barrier at the Pike's Peak hillclimb in Colorado.
http://www.carkeys.co.uk/images/cm_i...0pikespeak.jpg
Essex-based Mach 2 Racing has developed its own version of the Ford RS200 rally car. Apart from the huge wings required to generate sufficient downforce in the thin air of Pike's Peak (the course starts at 9440 feet and finishes 12 miles and 156 corners later at 14,110 feet), it looks fairly conventional as RS200s go. But it isn't really.
The heavily turbocharged engine has been modified so that it produces maximum power of 950bhp on regular fuel, while injections of nitrous oxide gas (contained in a 70-litre tank) boost this to an extraordinary 1150bhp. The Avon tyres have to cope not only with this but with a mixture of road surfaces - the course is asphalt to begin with but changes to gravel as it climbs.
The RS200 is owned by businessman Alan Greenwood and will be driven by Mark Rennison, winner of the British Rallycross Championship in 1987 and 1988. Rennison will have just one shot at bring the Pike's Peak record to Britain this Sunday (July 19).
British Pike's Peak Challenge | Road Tests, Auto Features
[Source: CARkeys ]