Three time French ice racing champ Jean-Philippe Dayraut has accomplished a lot in his career, but he’s always wanted to race, and win, at the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb. He accomplished one of the two last week, and despite plenty of enthusiasm, finished just third in on what is recognized as the most challenging event of its kind.

With a time of 10 minutes and 17 seconds, Dayraut was 26 seconds off of Monster Tajima’s record-setting sub-10 minute run and 8 seconds behind Rhys Millen. This shouldn’t come as a surprise, with Tajima a veteran of the mountain and Millen having competed there many times before. Dayraut, however, had just three days to prepare and his purpose-built Nissan GT-R powered mid-engine Dacia Duster race car was built in just three months.

“It’s got to be the most incredible and craziest event I have ever done,” he said after reaching the peak. “The mix of asphalt and gravel calls for special driving skills and I am thrilled to have finished on the podium and competed up there with best.”

But Dayraut’s story doesn’t end there. In a release issues by Dacia parent company Renault, there’s a big hint that the team will be back to contest for the win next year.

GALLERY: Dacia Duster Pikes Peak No Limit

“B-Spec Rally Fit” and “Desert Pilot” sound like the names of Steven Seagal characters, but they’re actually Honda’s attempt to tackle the 89th annual Pikes Peak International Hillclimb.

The Rally Fit is a modified version of the Fit that aims to keep things as stock as possible, while the Desert Pilot makes no pretentions about its purpose-built roots.

The Fit is designed for rallycross and stage rallying, and features a roll cage, new suspension, 205/50R15 BFGoodrich R1 tires, and camber adjusters. It debuted at the 25 Hours of Thunderhill last year and will feature parts available from Honda Performance Development available at dealers.

The Desert Pilot stems from Honda’s CR-R stock Honda Ridgeline entries in the Baja 1000, which won in its class twice. It features a tubular space-frame chassis built around a modified version of Honda’s 3.7-liter V6, churning 400 horsepower behind the drivers. Widened bodywork, four-wheel independent suspension with King shocks, and 35-inch BF Goodrich tires turn the Pilot into something a little cooler than your aunt’s Home Depot shuttle.

Both are expected to race at Pikes Peak on July 26th. After that, the Desert Pilot will race in Class 6 in a variety of off-road events, finishing with the Baja 1000. The B-Spec Fit will be raced in more rallycross events.

Click the jump to see what the Fit looks like.

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Nobuhiro “Monster” Tajima is no stranger to Pikes Peak: he’s won the International Hill Climb five times, and currently holds the record for the fastest time up the mountain. This year, he’s aiming to win again, and who is his greatest opponent? Himself.

The current best time up the 12.42-mile course is 10:01.408, set by Monster himself in 2007.  Cracking the 10-minute mark is the Holy Grail, the motorsports equivalent of the four-minute mile—but just as that challenge was cracked in 1954, so too will Pikes Peak be conquered in under 10 minutes.

Tajima is driving once again for Suzuki, this time in an SX4 Hill Climb Special with 910 horsepower. He will face challenges from Paul Dallenbach, Dave Carapetyan and Rhys Millen, who was favored to be the event’s front-runner last year in his Hyundai Genesis coupe but ultimately proved to be a dud. The festivities begin this Friday, June 24th, and the racing starts on the 26th in Colorado Springs.

This year is shaping up to be a good one for the Unlimited class at the Pike’s Peak International Hill Climb. Drivers have been aspiring to break into the 9-minute mark for decades now but it seems like this year may be the year we’ll actually witness it.

Paul Dallenbach campaigned in the Unlimited class last year, with is custom racer sporting 745-hp and 650 ft-lbs of torque. But he wasn’t satisfied and knew he needed a much more potent engine program to compete with the likes of Rhys Millen and Nobuhiro Tajima in hitting the 9-minute mark.

So what did Dallenbach do? They turned to Banks Power and by combining their great minds, a twin-turbocharged effort was spawned which throws down an astonishing 1,307-hp with 1,206 ft-lbs of torque. Now if that doesn’t help Dallenbach power up Pikes Peak, we’re not sure what will.

Now obviously with all that extra power available, he had to do some shakedown runs to get used to the car. And thankfully they were there with video cameras to record it for the world to see.

Will this year finally be the year we’ll see a 9-minute pass up Pikes Peak? We’re keeping our fingers crossed. Check out a video of how fast this bad boy is after the break.

[Source: BanksPower]

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The Nissan Leaf has been in the press quite a bit recently. While it recently took top honor of “World Car of the Year” at the 2011 New York International Auto Show, it has been in the news recently that some Leaf owners have been left stranded on the road because the battery indicator was incorrect and hence they had much less actual range than the indicator suggested.

Still, this electric vehicle has achieved many milestones in its short life, and now it seems to have its sights set on a peak. Pikes Peak to be exact, which is undoubtedly the most famous hill climb event in North America, probably even the world.

Nissan will enter a completely stock Leaf EV at this years event and it will be piloted by Chad Hord, a professional off-road truck racer from the TORC series.

Last year, Pikes Peak had a class just for electric cars, so it will be interesting to see what this stock 110-hp car can achieve against purpose built electric racers. Guess we’ll have to wait until June 26th to find out.

The Pikes Peak Hill Climb event attracts racers and car manufacturers from around the world. In the last quarter-century, the Germans, the Japanese and more recently the South Koreans have had a go in conquering this mountain, and now it looks like its Romania’s turn. Yea, Romania.

Dacia might not be well know in America, but they are getting ready to take on Pikes Peak this year with Jean-Phillipe Dayraut at the wheel. He will be driving a Dacia Duster with a tuned engine out of a Nissan GT-R. Peak output should be around 850-hp and since the car weighs under 2000 lbs., it will be quick.

Dayraut, who has won the French ice-racing series, the Andros Trophy in the last two years, is certainly qualified to handle the task. But in order to win, he has to beat the likes of Nobuhiro “Monster” Tajima in his modified Suzuki Grand Vitara.

Dacia, which is part of the Renault-Nissan alliance, has recruited Tork Engineering to build their Pikes Peak racer. We can’t wait to see it in action.

[Source: Le Blog Auto via Autoblog]

Hyundai may have created a lot of buzz with its Pikes Peak record attempt this year but it was Suzuki (yes, Suzuki) that climbed the hill the fastest. Even more surprising is the fact that Suzuki driver Nobuhiro “Monster” Tajima won the race for the fifth straight year, setting a dominant pace that put him at the top of the hill a half a minute before his closest competitor.

In anticipation of Tajima breaking his own world record of 10:01.41 Falken Tire decided to document the 2010 effort. Sadly Tajima’s 2007 record remains, with this year’s run clocked at “just” 10:11.490.

The good news is, that’s a few extra seconds that we get to enjoy the awesome ride-along experience of the 910-hp twin-turbo AWD Suzuki SX4 using up every last inch of the road – and in some cases, even more.

As for what this all has to do with Falken Tire, well, the Japanese tire company is using the video to help promote its new Falken WildPeak A/T tires – which Tajima used during his dominant performance.

Check out the awesome video after the jump:

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By now, no doubt you’ve heard that Rhys Millen’s attempt to set a sub 10-minute time and reclaim the world record for his family at the Pikes Peak International Hillclimb was less than successful. Not only did Millen fail to break the 10-second time, but he managed just third place with a distant 11:06.208 run after his purpose built 650-hp Hyundai race car suffered mechanical problems. Worse still, he was bested by Nobuhiro ‘Monster’ Tajima and his race-prepped Suzuki. This was Tajima’s fifth consecutive win, but wasn’t his fastest, with his best attempt back in 2007 at 10:01.41 – which bested Rhys’ father, Rod Millen’s, previous world record of 10:04.06, set back in 1994.

And while it’s no record-setting run, the team at Red Bull Racing made an incredible video out of the event which is sure to get plenty of eyeballs thanks to high production quality and the sheer awesomeness of both the event and the car.

The video documents the attempt and the challenges any team faces trying to conquer the mountain in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Millen himself put it best in a post race interview, commenting that, “Everything that could have gone wrong went wrong today.”

Check out the video after the jump:

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Pikes Peak International Hill Climb veteran Jeff Zwart put on an awesome display of RWD car control on his record-breaking assent of Pikes Peak this weekend, taking his Luminox Watch Porsche GT3 Cup car up the 14,115 ft mountain in a Time Attack RWD class record time of 11-minutes and 31.1-seconds.

Zwart’s time up the mountain shattered the RWD Time Attack 12-minute 2-second record time set last year by Rhys Millen in his FormulaD Hyundai Genesis. Zwart’s pace up the mountain in his Porsche was also 1-minute 50-seconds quicker than his nearest competitor this year, making his performance all the more impressive.

For proof of this record-breaking trip up Pikes Peak, check out the video after the jump.

[Source: Porsche]

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With plenty of lead up to its introduction at the 88th annual Pikes Peak Hillclimb, the Rhys Millen Racing Hyundai Genesis PM580 didn’t deliver on any of its promises and instead was overshadowed by the Suzuki of Nobuhiro ‘Monster’ Tajima. Rhys Millen had set out to break the 10 minute barrier on the treacherous mountain and reclaim the record for his family. (Rhys’ father Rod set a record of 10:04.06 in 1994, which Tajima topped in 2007 with a 10:01.41).

Tajima once again came out on top on the weekend’s race, claiming his 5th consecutive overall win at America’s second oldest race with a 10:11.490. In second was three-time hillclimb champion Paul Dallenbach with a 10:39.534 run. As for Millen, he placed a distance third with an 11:06.208 run after his purpose built 650-hp Hyundai race car suffered mechanical problems. “Everything that could have gone wrong went wrong today,” said Millen.

The Pikes Peak Hill Climb, which takes place annually on Pikes Peak in Colorado Springs, Colorado, starts at an elevation of 9,300 feet and finishes at an elevation of 14,110 feet – where the air is so think drivers’ reaction times begin to slow and their race car engines lose 30 percent of their power. Drivers drift around 146 corners in 12.42 miles of track made up of dirt and asphalt, nearly missing guard rails and trees, while avoiding cliffs with 2,000-foot drop-offs.

[Source: Associated Press]