Just over a month after the 2016 Pikes Peak International Hillclimb, CarWow highlights some of the cars they’d love to see compete at America’s second oldest motor racing event.
[Not a valid template]Ever wondered what a NISMO-powered electric Nissan LEAF would look like a assaulting the Pikes Peak International Hillclimb? Actually no, us neither, let me take another stab at that…
Have you ever wanted to see Ariel’s 351bhp/ton Nomad take on Pikes Peak? Or even the brand new 168bhp Abarth 124 Spider? Expect Adam Sandler to headline the Globe theatre before that happens. Still, if curiosity is gnawing away at you like a rabid tomcat, these are two cars among several others the guys at CarWow would like to see take on Pikes Peak (you may remember their ‘Le Mans cars we’d like to see built’ feature from a few weeks ago).
Hardly surprising that both Audi and Peugeot feature on CarWow’s PPIHC list. Audi’s turbocharged S1 Quattro reset the event’s benchmark in the mid-late 1980s, the car itself inspiring event favourite Bobby Unser to take another stab at the top prize in 1986 after 12 years away from active competition. Sadly a Quattro-liveried R8 or TT RS have been given a backseat in favour of Audi’s new Q2, featuring flared wheelarches, vented bodywork and a ma-hoosive rear spoiler alongside its 187bhp 2-litre TFSI four-cylinder. Then there’s the Peugeot 108, clad in Red Bull colours in reference to Sébastien Loeb’s record-setting run aboard the 208 T16 in 2013. The French marque’s smallest city car making a leap to the rally stages seems farfetched even for this list, though we will admit, with ‘the aggression turned up to 11’, it does look pretty sweet.
As it must be said does the Toyota Hilux, a mainstay of the Dakar Rally circus since 2012 with former Dakar winner Giniel de Villiers. Clearly a favourite of CarWow’s designers too, since some serious thought has been put into this design. The 2.4-litre diesel four-cylinder for instance has been relocated to the truck bed for better weight distribution, while the truly massive rear wing helps improve downforce – as does the new front splitter – and increase traction. The Hilux also boasts Toyota’s iconic red, white and green Castrol livery, used to eye-popping effect while the team was busy cleaning up four World Rally Championships from five years between 1990 and 1994. One of our personal favourite designs though is the MINI JCW ‘Challenge’. Like Toyota, another Dakar Rally regular (albeit with four consecutive victories to its name), although the Countryman-inspired All 4 Racing has been swapped out for the most extreme road-legal Cooper you can buy today. A design all the more fitting given that, despite a notable rally record, MINI has yet to take the top step at Pikes Peak.
The most random? Well boys and girls, that would definitely be CarWow’s Ford Transit. It’s arguably the most famous utility vehicle on the planet, designed to handle like a car but cater to the needs of plumbers, builders, delivery drivers and, in 1970s Britain at least, house breakers. Of course this being a performance Ford, the ‘Ecoboost’ signage is front and centre, although so too is the 600bhp 3.5-litre twin-turbo V6 found in the Le Mans category-winning Ford GT.
And like we say there’s also a Nissan LEAF….but we don’t really know what to write about that…
