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Tajima-san's car, the 2016 Tajima Rimac E-Runner Concept_One.Elle Cayabyab Gitlin
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Monster gets ready to set a qualifying run. The goal was mainly to get a feel for the car and the new tires. During practice it has been using last year's battery pack, so the car isn't making as much power as it will be on Sunday.Elle Cayabyab Gitlin
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Acura works on its cars in the early morning.Elle Cayabyab Gitlin
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This is the fastest of the NSXes, running in Electric Modified. Like the 2016 Tajima Rimac E-Runner Concept_One, this also has four electric motors and torque vectoring.Elle Cayabyab Gitlin
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Unlike the previous car, this is an almost-stock NSX. Engineer and driver James Robinson told us the only changes were removing the air conditioning and door cards, plus the addition of a more free-flowing exhaust. He was rather happy with the car's handling when we caught up with him after one of his runs.Elle Cayabyab Gitlin
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The final of the three NSXes. This one really is a stock car—plus a roll cage of course.Elle Cayabyab Gitlin
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Entropy Racing's EVSR has been successfully demonstrating that electric power can work for club racing since 2014. Rick Knoop will run this car up the mountain on Sunday.Elle Cayabyab Gitlin
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Entropy Racing's Charlie Greenhaus talks to Knoop before his qualifying run.Elle Cayabyab Gitlin
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Blake Fuller is racing this Tesla Model S as the sole Electric Production car.Elle Cayabyab Gitlin
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Romain Dumas set the fastest time in qualifying. He runs in the Unlimited Class with this Norma M20 RD Limited Spec-2016.Randels Media Group/Revvolution.com, Official Photographers of the PPIHC
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Robert Prilika's Porsche 911 GT3. One of the best-sounding cars of the day!Elle Cayabyab Gitlin
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In 2012, Jeremy Foley's Mitsubishi Lancer Evo rolled off the side of the mountain at Devil's Playground. Despite a horrific-looking crash, Foley and his co-driver Yuri Kouznetsov both made it out OK—the only injury was a dislocated shoulder for Kouznetsov. Now the remains of the car are on display at the Penrose Heritage Museum in Colorado Springs.Elle Cayabyab Gitlin
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The latest Project SAM, which Arrow has engineered to give former IndyCar racer Sam Schmidt the ability to drive again.Elle Cayabyab Gitlin
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Sam Schmidt at the Hall of Fame ceremony. Robby Unser (who will ride with Schmidt on Sunday) told us that his chauffeur isn't likely to take it easy on the way up.Elle Cayabyab Gitlin
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Project SAM's cockpit. On the dash in front of the driver (to the left) you can see the sensors that track Schmidt's head to control the steering.Elle Cayabyab Gitlin
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Pikes Peak is paved all the way to the summit, a process that started in 1998. For the vast majority of the race's existence, it was an all-dirt affair. And no one ever got to the summit on dirt faster than Rod Millen. It was 1994, the car was this 850hp (634kW) silhouette Celica, and in Millen's hands it ran the course in 10:04.06. It took 13 years for anyone to go faster, by which point 75 percent of the course was paved.Elle Cayabyab Gitlin
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Pikes Peak itself.Elle Cayabyab Gitlin
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo.—Racing at Pikes Peak starts early, really early. At this point I'm no stranger to the fact that a day at the track means leaving the house before dawn. But here at the mountain, the road is reopened for two-way traffic at 8:30am—so 4am it is. We're here because Giti Tires and Team APEV with Monster Sport invited Cars Technica to embed with them as Nobuhiro "Monster" Tajima attempts to become "King of the Mountain" for the eighth time.
Tajima-san runs in the Electric Modified class for purpose-built machines. On Thursday morning, we got our first look at his 1.1MW (1,500hp) Tajima Rimac E-Runner Concept_One as well as some of the cars from other classes. Acura is here with three NSXes. There's an almost-stock NSX in Time Attack 2 Production, a second NSX—minus its AC and some interior trim—running in Time Attack 1 and silhouette NSX with four electric motors and torque vectoring in Electric Modified. There's even a Tesla Model S that is being campaigned by Blake Fuller.
Later in the day, the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb inducted its 2016 Hall of Fame. On the way in we were greeted by Arrow's latest Project SAM—a Corvette Z06 that Sam Schmidt will drive on Sunday after the final race up to the top and back to lead the entire field back to the start line. Between this and Frédéric Sausset at Le Mans, it's inspiring how motorsports is using technology to make itself more accessible, particularly because it's leading to real-world applications.
The fastest man all day was Romain Dumas in his Norma M20 RD Limited Spec-2016, doubly impressive since less than a week ago he won Le Mans with his Porsche teammates. Compared to the massive factory effort that was Porsche's assault on Le Mans, Pikes Peak is a personal labor of love for Dumas. We were curious to find out from the Le Mans champ how this event compared to his day job.
"You cannot compare a Le Mans car with [his Norma]; it's like night and day," he told Ars. "One is made by a factory, with over 200 engineers. This one is made at home."
Still, despite the sleep deprivation (Dumas and some of his crew flew straight in from Le Mans earlier in the week), he seemed excited about racing the mountain. "I was not expecting to be so tired," he said. "But Pikes Peak is always a big challenge."
You can find a full list of times from Thursday here. The racing at Pikes Peak takes place on Sunday. Unfortunately, there's no stream or TV broadcast to watch, but there is an Android and iOS app with timing and scoring. If you're in the area on Friday afternoon, there's also a fan fest in downtown Colorado Springs. Giti Tires will be on hand, and you can even win a trip to the Rose Bowl by taking your photo with a cutout of Tajima-san.
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