PPIHC Role Call

mndsm wrote:

sachilles wrote: My buddy Jamie(Kiwi) Melhuish is there competing in his Green bmw time attach #317. They just finished the car last monday am and drove non stop from VT to get there. He is with my my buddy Cyrus who is crewing for him. Good folks, say hi. Forgive them if they seem a little tired.

Pretty sure he's the one that just popped his radiator at the start line and had to withdraw.

Nope, not him, he was right after that.

I had too much fun!

z31maniac wrote:

Jim Pettengill wrote: 8:13.878 - WOW! Just wow. I expected a spectacular time, but that's just amazing. Like Keith, I've been a fan of Seb's for years, but this is just something else. That time will stand for a long time to come. All who got to see that should consider themselves privileged to have been there at a classic moment in motorsports.

It's an amazing time, yes, no doubt about it. But the unlimited class will quickly take care of it. Dont be surprised if the top class next year is approaching the 7 min mark. More hp, more aero, and good weather................it may well be Loeb that does it. But now that it's an asphalt race, the times will drop quickly. I suspect before the end of this decade we will see a run at 6:59 or quicker.

Peugeot already did that math - the car Loeb brought had pretty spectacular aero and hp. 2.2 lb/hp, faster than an F1 car in 1st gear, "downforce like a Le Mans car" according to Loeb...and driven by the best rally driver in the world. Conditions weren't perfect, but they were awfully close. It'll fall eventually, but don't expect it to go right away.

To put this in perspective, last year's record holder was Rhys Millen. He was racing again this year and pulled off a 9:03 in a purpose-built Pike's Peak car. Spectacular improvement from last year's 9:46, but still 40 seconds behind Loeb. 40 seconds.

The bikes were actually slow this year. You could tell last year that it was mostly dirt guys, but one race bike showed up and demonstrated what was possible. But oddly, none of them cracked 10 minutes. There was talk on the radio of greasy track conditions although I can't think of why. They tried to blame the spectator cars for putting "fluid" on the road.

One thing that was mentioned on the radio over the course of the day is that the dirt might have been more changeable from year to year, but it was more forgiving. The asphalt is not forgiving at all.

In reply to Keith Tanner: IIRC the one race bike bike that showed them how it was done was Electric and did it in 10:00.x minutes. Sooooo close to 9's. :D

Yup, he was about 0.6 seconds off cracking 10:00. Frustrating.

Leob and the unlimited class had perfect conditions (for pikes peak) the sun was out on the pavement, it wasn't raining or hailing yet and had been dry all morning. Sure the surface was a little cold and the only vehicles ahead of them were bikes/quads/sidecar-bikes so little rubber transfer but holy E36 M3!

Keith: were you there this year? I did see someone walking around with a flyin miata hoodie Saturday.

Yup, that would have been either me or my wife - depending on the gender of the person you saw . We checked out the summit and the playground on Saturday, then camped at Ski Area and moved up at 3:00 am. We were the Vanagon Westfalia in the parking lot.

The conditions during practice were better, thus my "not perfect" comment. 20 degrees warmer and he might have taken a few seconds off. But it sure got worse - I was surprised to see a Quattro Sport coming down the hill, how did that get past me on the way up? Must have been in the fog...

In reply to Keith Tanner:

Yeah I took a picture of your vanagon somewhere above devils playground on the scenic overlook that day haha.

The white quattro was kind of in the fog but definitely during the wet portion, it looked real smooth up the hill and I don't think it would have gone much faster in the dry.

We camped at Glen Cove and then got up at 5am to drive to devils playground.

We were in a maroon late 90s jeep cherokee, IE the only vehicle there with Michigan plates.

Keith Tanner wrote:

z31maniac wrote:

Jim Pettengill wrote: 8:13.878 - WOW! Just wow. I expected a spectacular time, but that's just amazing. Like Keith, I've been a fan of Seb's for years, but this is just something else. That time will stand for a long time to come. All who got to see that should consider themselves privileged to have been there at a classic moment in motorsports.

It's an amazing time, yes, no doubt about it. But the unlimited class will quickly take care of it. Dont be surprised if the top class next year is approaching the 7 min mark. More hp, more aero, and good weather................it may well be Loeb that does it. But now that it's an asphalt race, the times will drop quickly. I suspect before the end of this decade we will see a run at 6:59 or quicker.

Peugeot already did that math - the car Loeb brought had pretty spectacular aero and hp. 2.2 lb/hp, faster than an F1 car in 1st gear, "downforce like a Le Mans car" according to Loeb...and driven by the best rally driver in the world. Conditions weren't perfect, but they were awfully close. It'll fall eventually, but don't expect it to go right away. To put this in perspective, last year's record holder was Rhys Millen. He was racing again this year and pulled off a 9:03 in a purpose-built Pike's Peak car. Spectacular improvement from last year's 9:46, but still 40 seconds behind Loeb. 40 seconds. The bikes were actually slow this year. You could tell last year that it was mostly dirt guys, but one race bike showed up and demonstrated what was possible. But oddly, none of them cracked 10 minutes. There was talk on the radio of greasy track conditions although I can't think of why. They tried to blame the spectator cars for putting "fluid" on the road. One thing that was mentioned on the radio over the course of the day is that the dirt might have been more changeable from year to year, but it was more forgiving. The asphalt is not forgiving at all.

You make a great point.

So let's give it 1000hp and F1 levels of aero? Is active Aero banned in the unlimited class?

My understanding is the LeMans cars are actually kind of low on downforce because of top speed/mpg requirements? Is that true?

I think I came across something about the old GTP cars producing north of 10k lbs of downforce?

It's possible that the "Le Mans levels of downforce" was not backed up by massive data but was more of a sound bite. Thus the quotes . It's also worth noting that Loeb may not have driven a Le Mans car since his podium finish in 2006 or so. Efficiency is definitely important at Le Mans.

I don't know if active is allowed or not. Good question. The speedo in the in-car video shows a range from about 40 km/h to 240 km/h, so it would be interesting to play with.

I'd love to see Red Bull bring out an actual F1 car. Take the restrictor off a 2014 turbo motor

I saw 243 km/h indicated near the top, damn fast.

My report from my buddy in the green bmw is that the upper course conditions(weather) during his run were worse for him this year. He didn't get a dry run last year either, poor guy. Said he had rain, hail and snow. The hoosier A6's didn't care so much for that.

Some roof cam footage of the weather he encounter along the way.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x1c-9uxowfY&feature=share&list=UUC96NpaQGtI4pi9d14U2K7w

In reply to Keith Tanner:

There was a lot of that talk, someone just brings an F1 car to pikes peak.