Like everything else sporting, US motorsport tends to be at a slightly different angle to the rest of the world. Europeans have a habit of not paying much attention to series like Indycar and comprehension grinds to a halt when it comes to NASCAR.
Pikes Peak - Peugeot 405 T16
One event that kicks our scrawny, rotten-toothed arses into next week is the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb, surely one of the most spectacular motoring happenings in the world and also one of the oldest.
Pikes Peak is in the Rocky Mountains in Colorado. It rises to 14,115 ft. The man who it was named after, Zebulon Pike, swore that humans would never conquer it. He was somewhat wrong.
The first road to the summit was built in 1900. The first car, a Locomobile Steamer, took 9 hours to reach the top in 1901. The first competition event took place over a weekend in August 1916 to publicise the widening of the road to the top.
The winning time was 20 minutes, 55 seconds, set by Rea Lentz in the Romano Demon Special. The current record, on an almost unchanged route, is 10 minutes and 1 second set by Monster Tajima in a Suzuki XL7.
The Winners - 1916 vs 2007
The course is 12.4 miles long with 156 bends over a combination of tarmac, gravel and plenty of open drops. It rises nearly a mile from the start line at 9400 ft. The altitude change is so extreme that cars lose 30% of their power between the start and finish.
For years it was dominated by US drivers in the Open Wheel division – custom-built specials with huge V8s and huger wings. Some of the greatest names in motorsport such as the Unser family and Mario Andretti were winners.
Dallenbach Special - Open Wheeler
During the 80s it attracted the attention of international manufacturer teams and a foreign invasion brought new technology and higher speeds to the hill. Millions were spent custom-building specials like the Suzuki Escudo and Peugeot 405 T16, monsters with 1000+ bhp and every technological trick out there.
It’s not only for millionaires. There are several different divisions and often 150 competitors spread through the classes over the weekend’s racing. In addition to various car classes there are also bikes, quads and trucks competing.
PIkes Peak Competitors in action
All going well we’ll see you on the mountain at the end of June. There’s not much point in trying to convey any more with words, so we’ll leave it to the mountain masters.
Let us assume for a moment that you’ve just come into a vast amount of money, or you’ve been diagnosed with an unpleasant disease and have recently wangled an enormous loan from your neighbourhood gangster that you’ve no intention of paying back, what could that money buy you in terms of experiences?
It seems that you’re alive at the right time. Well done.
With the collapse of communism, economies and the relentless demand for new sensations the possibilities are almost unlimited. Let’s have a look at what’s out there.
1 – Dive the Titanic
The Titanic
If you have £28,000 and 12 days to spare then you can go down and have a look at the remains of the Titanic, going only where scientists, James Cameron and other rich and bored people have been before. Travelling aboard a Russian Academy of Science owned ship, once you’ve covered the 350 or so miles from Newfoundland you descend 2.5 miles down in one of their submersibles. Once down there you can weep over little Leonardo Di Caprio, take some pics or just tick it off your list. Taking souvenirs away is not encouraged.
2 – Drive an F1 car.
Piece of piss?
Ever watched a backmarker in an F1 race and thought you could do better? If you really wanted to find out that could be arranged.
There are no shortage of places offering F1 experience drives. Prices tend to start at around £1000 and rise rapidly. You may find the experience not all that you were hoping for as many of them detune the engines, reduce the number of gears and limit you to a tiny number of laps.
If you want it done right then things will need to be more involved. It’s pretty tough to find a complete top-line F1 car for sale. There are plenty around minus engines and electronics but your chances of finding the remaining parts are zero. Running one would also require a small army of people and computers.
To make life easier we’d recommend buying something already developed to run in the Big Open Single Seaters series. Slightly simplified 90s mid field cars start from £50,000. If you want something proper retro and easier to operate then a nice 70s Cosworth DFV-powered machine will be a lovely buy.
Rent yourself a race circuit. Not many have the noise levels allowing F1 cars, but you’d be looking at £5000 a day for a smaller circuit up to £25,000 plus for the Silverstone GP circuit. Of course if you’re that rich or dying then you may as well take it out for a spin on the public highway.
3 -Fly to Antarctica to have a look around
Buckle up
Almost all Antarctic tourism involves getting there by ship. Unfortunately this means you have to cross the Drake Passage which is renowned as the planet’s roughest patch of ocean.
Since you’re now rich, and thus important, the only option is to fly. Your options are fairly limited. Qantas offer day flights over the continent in conventional airliners. They reduce speed to lessen the pollution and allow more time for cooing out the windows but there is the small annoyance of not actually landing.
For $38,000 Adventure Network , the only people in Antarctica with a private camp, will fly you to various spots in the Antarctic including the South Pole.
If you intend to charter your own plane to get there then be warned that the US Antarctic program does not encourage logistical help for joyriders so if you run out of fuel you may be washing their dishes for a very long time.
4 – Climb the Seven Summits
161 people have climbed the highest mountain on each continent. The first was Richard Bass, a US businessman in 1985. Since then there’s been a bit of dispute over which mountain is in which continent so your task will be 8 summits -
Kilimanjaro in Africa, 19,340 ft. Everest in Asia, 29,029 ft. Mount Elbrus in Europe, 18,510ft. Mount Mckinley in North America, 20,320ft. Aconcagua in South America, 22,841ft. Mount Vinson in Antarctica, 16,050ft. Kosciuszko in Australia, 7,310ft. Carstenz Pyramid in Australia, 16.024ft.
That all sounds like seriously hard work, so we’ll have to get creative. If it really means that much to you to slog your way up from the bottom then try a pressurised version of one of these.
Roughing it
You will require a team of hardy porters. Be nice to them.
If you simply want to step outside onto a summit then our top tip is a Super Blimp
It’ll probably need upgrading to cope with breezes up there but there look like few more relaxing ways to get those peaks in the bag. Check out www.aeroscraft.com for your very own sky yacht.
5 – Fly around the moon.
The Ultimate
For $100 million a seat Space Adventures will fly you and a special friend around the moon. That seems awfully cheap but their mission plan utilises existing Russian technology that has already been there, albeit unoccupied. Within the last couple of weeks Space Adventures announced that their first taker has signed on the dotted line. There’s still time for you to nab the second seat.
The spiderman in question is Dan Osman and this was the climb that made his name. He ascended 400 feet in 4 minutes without a safety rope near Lake Tahoe in the USA.
Dan Osman
Osman was known for pushing the limits. He threw away all aspects of a conventional lifestyle to devote himself to his sport and in the process he came up with a completely new one.
In 1989 he was attempting to place a single bolt in the rock face of an especially difficult move. He fell 50 times whilst roped until he finally managed to secure the bolt. Osman discovered that he found the falls more thrilling than pulling off the climb.
The sport he came up with had a few names – free falling, body hurling, rope jumping – but they all amount to the same thing. A person jumps from a great height attached to a rope. The rope stops your fall before the fatal moment. So far, so bungee. But a bungee rope absorbs the energy of your descent, Osman’s system used a conventional climbing rope which, without careful placement of anchors, pulleys, pre-stretching of the rope and the correct body position, would tear someone to pieces.
Osman performed hundreds of jumps of this type, plunging up to 650 feet at a time. Coaxed by Osman, other people sampled the rush but not many came back for more, it was just too dangerous for them. A young climber was killed trying to carry out a similar jump. His preparations weren’t as fastidious, a rope stretched beyond its intended length and he slammed into a rock wall.
In 1998 Osman arrived in Yosemite intent on making a record-breaking jump. Over the course of a week his jumps became higher and higher – nearly 1000 feet – until his final jump.
He called friends and told them he was ‘going big’. He leapt out into the fading daylight and was killed when his rope snapped. Subsequent investigation revealed that a slight change in the jump angle caused the ropes to rub together and fail.
He left behind a young daughter and a discipline that hardly anyone else dared try.
It’s debatable as to whether having a nice stroll qualifies as an extreme sport.
If an amble by the river to chuck some bread at the ducks definitely doesn’t, there are certainly other moments when it definitely does.
Say hello to El Caminito Del Ray
This place is located near Malaga in southern Spain in the Gorges of Gaitanes. The 3 kilometre path was built between 1901 and 1905 to link two hydro electric power stations and allow the transportation of materials and inspectors between them.
The path is one metre wide and appears to be made of concrete with a steel frame underpinning it nailed to the mountain wall. There are no handrails for most of the way and at some places you’re teetering over 100 metres above the river below.
All of that would be alarming enough, but the pathway has also deteriorated to the point where much of the concrete has fallen away leaving gaping holes with only the steel rods underneath to balance on. A wire has been attached to latch on to but no one seems to know how much weight it can bear.
Access to the walkway was officially removed in 2000 after the death of four people, but it still attracts infiltrators looking for the ultimate buzz on two feet.
Plans are afoot for an official restoration by 2012 but even if it had a toilet every two feet and a bungee for every walker, it’s hard to imagine how many people could manage the entire journey without soiling themselves.
For a taste of the true horror try the video below. The camera person appears to be making use of one hand for some of the film. Ugh.
It’s hard to think of many better feelings than really flying downhill on a mountain bike. Whether it’s winding through a technical trail or bombing down a smooth forest track, it always seems to end too quickly.
And a handful of people on remote mountainsides have taken things just that little bit further.
The quickest speed we’ve pulled off has probably been somewhere above 50. At that speed eyes were streaming, tyres were twitching and smacking into insects felt like shots from an rifle.
Eric Barone holds the current world record at 138 mph.
Using a custom built bike, aerodynamic suit and helmet and a snowy mountain he streaked into the record books in 2000.
Decidcing that wasn’t enough, Mr Barone wanted to prove that he could go faster on soil.
After a global search he discovered the Cerro Negro volcano in Nicaragua. The clean slopes and soft ash of the volcanic surface were ideal.
In 2002 he topped 101 mph on a standard mountain bike. A few moments later he set off on a carbon fibre prototype bike. He hit 108 mph and took the record for soil. Seconds after that things stopped going to plan.
Apart from some broken ribs he was fine and vowed he was still willing to beat his own records.
Prototypes are well cool, but it would also be nice to see how a standard mountain bike would fare on a snowy surface too. Luckily Markus Stoeckl has done it for you.
In 2007 he topped 130mph on Chilean snow slope riding an Intense M6. The slope was a mile long with a 45 degree incline.
So if you can drum up an Alienesque helmet, full body condom, sexy calf extensions and a nice steep slope, cover it in snow and let us know how it went.
