Conquering Pikes Peak: Inside the Legendary Hill Climb & The Timeless Necessity of Hand Signals

Pikes Peak International Hill Climb

Speaker 2 0:18

Welcome to another In Wheel Time podcast . Is we run in what they would call the oldest , the most historic class , which is the open-wheel cars ? Most of those cars are purpose-built , built just for the mountain , to go up and down the mountain . It's still a place where factories come to test the newest technologies that's out and that's what Ford is doing , and Hyundai are there with the electric vehicles setting records and flying up the mountain .

Speaker 1 0:44

But let's make this clear this is not an off-road event , this is an open wheel . Climb the mountain on an asphalt road .

Speaker 2 0:52

For whatever , it is six , seven minutes yeah , um , it is uh , 12.43 miles and this year we did it in 10 minutes and 19 seconds um covering , I think it's , 6 000 feet of's 5,800 feet of elevation change in that section .

Speaker 1 1:10

Man , I'll tell you what . As you may or may not know , I went to visit my daughter in Denver in July and I want to say I made the mistake , but no , it was a learning experience . I white-knuckled that thing , that car that I was driving a beautiful Lexus RX 450 H+ up all that way , all the way to the mountaintop . And I mean white-knuckled it . I mean there were curves , there were switchbacks and I to this day don't know how I made it up there or how I made it back . Talk about heartbeats , sweat and palms in the whole nine yards I had .

Speaker 2 1:54

If you watch our video that's on YouTube , we've got top speed is about 116 , 117 . That road's normally 30 . And then we're as slow as 26 mile an hour in some of the switchbacks that you talk about . So it's pretty drastic in the speed changes and 153 corners that you're going up . So you know like the Ford team , for example , brings in Romain Dumas multiple time , you know , 24 hours a month , winter , driver of all things with four wheels just absolutely amazing , superhuman talent . Driver , two WRC world champions there racing with us this year as well . For Hyundai it was a pretty amazing year to even be in the finishing category , let alone to gain a feather in a cap of a third-place finish , 12th overall just breathtaking , did that really ?

Speaker 1 2:44

high-ranked driver . Cap of a third place , finish 12 overall . Just breathtaking . Um , did , did that , did that . Uh , really high-ranked driver . Did he know what he was getting into and said we're going to go up a mountain at that speed all the way to the top ?

Speaker 2 2:56

yeah , I mean most of the people that are doing this . It's literally a lifelong dream to race up this mountain Again . Internationally , this race is so much larger than it is here in America . It's pretty astounding , but it is the longest running race in the US . I mean Indianapolis 500 claims the same number of years , but this was the 102nd running this year of that race .

Speaker 1 3:20

Man , I'll tell you have you driven that ? Have you driven it in a race car ? Have you gone that way ?

Speaker 2 3:26

In a race car ? I have not . You have not I was told years ago not to drive it . But now that we've been married long enough , the wife says , yes , now I can drive it .

Speaker 1 3:34

Does she have some sort of hidden meaning about you driving up the mountain ? Like well , if he makes it , great , if he doesn't make it , oh well .

Speaker 2 3:41

She's got the well , something about life insurance being paid up or something I don't know . But yeah , it is on the table . I think my question is is it worth my risk ? At this point I really prefer the administrative side that I get to do with the race and then building the car is probably the most epic part . Putting a capable driver in it , because that's what they do all year long is drive and go up the mountain . That is the goal is to get even higher , to be able to get to a second or a first place dream . An open wheel to a top ten finish overall at Pikes Peak would be a huge lifelong achievement .

Speaker 1 4:18

Well , when I visited up there the week after 4th of july , they were already preparing for that race and getting things in place along that treacherous drive up there . You know , once you pay your money to go up the mountain , at that checkpoint down , it's not even at the bottom of the mountain that there's , it's like I don't know a mile or two up there . Um , you , you really don know . If you've never been there , you don't know what you're getting yourself into , because that checkpoint down there that's no big deal . I mean , there's trees around you and places to walk and bathrooms and all that . But once you get past that , then all of a sudden it kind of gets desolate and I don't know what altitude it was , but it got real desolate at some point on the mountain where there were no more trees yeah , once you cross the tree line , everything changes .

Speaker 2 5:11

Visibility . You can see further um . There's less vegetation and there's a lot of rocks , a lot of runoff , uh , so some pretty big cliffs , so to speak , or peaks that you could fall from . So you make sure and stay to the edge of the cliff . Always keep the cliff close and slow down for the corners and get back on the gas as soon as you can .

Speaker 1 5:32

Well , I mean , does everybody realize I didn't that there are no guardrails on most of that trip ?

Speaker 3 5:38

up there .

Speaker 1 5:39

There's nothing , I'm out . Yeah , me too . I mean , it's like you go off the road . You're going to go off-roading for a long time .

Speaker 2 5:47

There are some guardrails up there . There's got to be six or seven of them .

Speaker 1 5:49

Yeah , six or seven . And how many miles is that Six or seven ? Over all of those miles ?

Speaker 2 5:56

12.43 miles . So you plan your drive very well and be accurate , be on point , and all the drivers go through simulators before the race . So you are doing a simulator , usually twice a day , making a full course run , and then they'll actually watch videos of other drivers on board from years before and you're usually watching cars a little bit faster than yours , watch a couple cars slower than yours and you're just learning the course and how to do it and that's what our driver did this year . That helped him get , in my opinion , further up the pecking order was what we call four a day . You know you're watching two runs and then you're driving two runs every day the 90 days before the race plus all your practice time in the car .

Speaker 1 6:40

Wow , it truly is amazing . It's an amazing feat to do it and do all the cars have cameras .

Speaker 2 6:51

Yeah , cameras are required and that's basically for history of the event and verifying what's going on with the car , if there were any issues , safety issues concerns or accidents , how we learn from it , what we can make things better . But , yeah , cameras are there . I'll send Mars a link to our YouTube video that's got the overlay of the data on it so you can tell exactly how fast we were going compared to you up the mountain , and take a good look at it . It'll make you smile .

Speaker 1 7:19

No , it'll make me pinch my butt . Cheeks together going . Oh my God .

Speaker 3 7:23

There was something on youtube not very long ago couple couple days ago , of a driver had , uh , his view of it out the windshield from like a helmet cam , and then a different overall view and uh , it wasn't a very long video but it was very interesting and and exciting and how they get started and move up the mountain .

Speaker 1 7:38

It really was yeah , I , I just so . Did you learn anything from the owner manager perspective that you can make better next year ?

Speaker 2 7:52

Always , Every , every time we start the car , every time we're out there , there's something we learn , and this year was kind of our year of what I'll call data growth . We work with a company out of Dallas , ECU Masters standalone ECUs , but I mean we're even monitoring what our crankcase pressure is on the car . Now it seems simple to measure fuel pressure , but we data log our fuel pressures so we know what the fuel pressure is doing at every RPM , at every altitude and correspondence going up Pikes Peak . We have a new system that measures our tire temperatures . A new system that measures our tire temperatures . It takes eight readings across the tread of the tire , 32 times a second on every tire , and it records all this data for us . So we can come back after a run and go okay , well , we've got literally too much tire pressure here .

Speaker 1 8:35

We can take a half pound out and it's these small leaps in data knowledge that is making our cars substantially faster . I can't even imagine , so let's just use the crankcase pressure . Is that what you said , crankcase pressure ? Yeah , so as you go up the mountain , how much does it change ? Does it grow or does it shrink ?

Speaker 2 9:06

It actually grows , but we have a dry sump system , so in theory we're keeping it negative or zero or below at all times .

Speaker 1 9:12

And you do that because ? Why ? I'm sorry , why do you do that ?

Speaker 2 9:18

Well , the dry sump's actually creating vacuum . By creating vacuum , you're actually creating more power inside the engine . It makes the engine freer to work . Dry sump also takes all the oil out of the pan , so your crankshaft is not slapping through the oil every time . It revolves around as well . So you're freeing up horsepower . That's already there . It's just a more efficient system .

Speaker 1 9:37

What kind of engine did you run in this thing ?

Speaker 2 9:41

Little baby LS 7 liter . 427 cubic inch normally aspirated LS .

Speaker 1 9:48

And it likes oil . How much oil do you run in a dry sump system ? Ours is right at 3 gallons 3 gallons of oil when a normal car would run probably 5 quarts a little over a gallon . Yeah , and how did ? How do you do an oil temperature ?

Speaker 2 10:09

Oil temperature . We actually run a large cooler as well . Because of the sustained altitude the air is thinner , everything heats up faster . So at sea level we are what we call overcooled , but at Pikes Peak we are barely cooling it to the range that we want .

Speaker 1 10:26

And what is the normal water temperature that you're trying to maintain ?

Speaker 2 10:32

We like to be at the 180 on water and then we like for our oil to be as close to that as possible . But it's running about 10 degrees hotter right now , so it'll be a 180 , 190 split , is what we'd call it Race day . We saw as high as 210 on oil temp . Still nothing to be concerned about , nothing to worry about . But modern cars will run 230 240 on oil temps . So we're cool . But it's cool based on viscosity of the oil that we're running , which is another trick to free up a little bit of horsepower in the car as well so do you run thinner oil ?

Speaker 2 11:04

thinner oil , the higher the temperature . You use a thicker oil to help reduce that temperature , so lower you can keep the temperature . The thinner you use a thicker oil to help reduce that temperature , so the lower you can keep the temperature , the thinner you can go . The viscosity the faster everything revs up , the faster the oil runs through the block . It makes everything happier .

Speaker 1 11:18

What kind of filter do you run in a race engine like that ?

Speaker 2 11:22

We are Wix only here .

Speaker 1 11:24

Wix yep Go ahead .

Speaker 2 11:28

I'm just saying Wix is the one that has been for years . It's our standby that we run and we probably need to buy stock in that , because we use a lot of their filters cutting things apart , making sure what's going on inside the engine .

Speaker 1 11:40

Right , making sure there are no shavings in there .

Speaker 2 11:44

No shiny , no glitter , nothing of the sort . And then you just top the oil filter off and put it right back on the car , put a new one on and go now , did you bring a spare engine ? We did not take a spare with us this year , but we did have a spare ls in colorado springs that was available for us if we needed it . So paid them a small retainer to make sure there was a motor available if needed .

Speaker 2 12:07

Yeah , we actually had replacements of everything we needed this year we could have needed , with the exception of the chassis of the car or a transmission . Everything else was in hand or located in Colorado Springs , nice . First year we've been that far along . I mean , it was a year of change for the team and it showed in our results and I can't wait to see what next year brings for us .

Speaker 1 12:29

Yeah , so I assume that there are some aspects of that run that you're working on for next year already .

Speaker 2 12:36

There are plenty . Car is sadly still in the trailer . It's been out a couple times . We've got the wheels , watches and whiskey . Next weekend in College Station , the Selt Hotel , it'll be out for that and then , once that happens , it'll be going through another teardown to try and reduce some of the weight that we put on . This year the car actually gained more weight than we wanted and when you're running up a mountain every ounce counts . So got to shave some weight Wheels watches and whiskey .

Speaker 3 13:05

Yeah , we've been talking about that the past couple weeks , yeah .

Speaker 2 13:09

All right , one of you needs to come hang out with me . Mike , mike's going to take the in-wheel time truck up there .

Speaker 3 13:19

I would like to do that .

Speaker 1 13:20

He's going to put some road tires on it .

Speaker 2 13:23

We can pick you up and come through . We come right through in Needville . We'll just pick you up .

Speaker 4 13:28

Yeah , that'd be good . I just got to be back in Houston by one . It's the only problem .

Speaker 1 13:32

Ah , okay , Well that's when the drinking starts . Well , that's the whiskey part , I see

Hand Signals and Chrysler Pacifica Review

Speaker 1 13:38

. Well , Richard , great to talk to you . Congratulations , man . I mean , that's a huge feat and we feel like we've kind of been along the road with you , so to speak , absolutely . It's great to talk to you , uh and uh . Thanks again for joining us on this saturday morning . Richard tomlin with the apex auto works team .

Speaker 2 13:58

Thank you , sir we'll see you appreciate thank you , appreciate you .

Speaker 1 14:03

Are you kidding it's , it's mind-boggling .

Speaker 4 14:08

I'm telling you one of those things that , in your mind , you'd like to try driving . No , you wouldn't , not me . Well , I don't know that I would try it that hard .

Speaker 1 14:15

We'll stand on the side of the road with our arms folded going . Are you kidding ?

Speaker 4 14:19

I'll be down on the bottom of the mountain .

Speaker 1 14:22

Yeah , that's it . Hey , the In Wheel Time Car Talk show is available 24-7 through the iHeartRadio app . Just look for In Wheel Time Car Talk and a new daily podcast is available from your favorite podcast provider . We also video stream our live two-hour weekly show on Facebook , youtube and InWheelTimecom . In Wheel Time Car Talk show continues right after this quick break .

Speaker 1 14:42

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Speaker 1 15:41

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Speaker 1 16:40

I don't know about you . Welcome back to the In Real Time Car Talk Show . By the way , I don't know about you , but back in way back in the day , when I took uh driver's ed , one of the things that we had to learn was we had to learn hand signals . You did , but I already knew them because I had to take a . Just go with this . Okay , I had to take a test for a bicycle license , which was kind of stupid , but I had to go there and take the test . You know road rules . Basically , it was a driving test for riding your bike on the street . This is way back when yeah , way back , and one of the things was you had to learn your hand signals . I don't even know if kids know what a hand signal is other than the middle finger .

Speaker 3 17:31

Cars , bikes and motorcycles have hand signals . Yeah , and what happens when you need a hand signal ? What do you do ? Well , there's actually three , technically four , but there's three that we use all the time . So blinker , failure , turn signal , stop working To make a lane change or signal your intentions to turn your arm first has to start out . Hold that right there . It has to start out the window For a left turn . Don your hand signal simply stick your arm out the window straight , keep it parallel to the ground with your palm facing downward . That's the left turn For the right one . Now you're looking at this from behind .

Speaker 1 18:12

Right , okay , right .

Speaker 3 18:13

Just want to make sure , because you're not going to signal a guy in front of you .

Speaker 1 18:16

I'm just saying , because that picture is confusing .

Speaker 3 18:18

Well , it's Go ahead . I think it's a Nissan . It's fine For the right turn a hand signal . The elbow should be bent at a 90-degree angle so that your fingers are toward the sky , your palm is facing forward and your forearm is perpendicular to the ground . Although this is difficult to do if you're trying to go to the right with a car , it's over there . It's kind of hard to see , so just be careful . Look over your shoulder .

Speaker 3 18:44

So what happens when your brake lights go out ? If your brake lights and your turn signals are temporarily inoperable , you know the correct hand signals . You can continue to operate your vehicle to a safe place . You may also need to know these . Like Don said in a test . The signal for slowing down or stopping should be used in the event of brake or light failure . The driver's left arm is extended out the window . The elbow is bent down this time , palm facing backwards and your index fingers toward the ground . So that means you're going to slow down or stop .

Speaker 3 19:13

It's important to note that these signals are difficult to use at night , so be careful when driving at night . They may not always see you , so be careful of that . Cyclists and motorcycles , like we talked about may have . They can use the right or the left side , so it doesn't matter to them because their body is open on that particular vehicle . Signaling to the right turn may stick your arm out right to the left is out left , and these are all part of the national highway traffic safety administration signals and the guides that they produce for motorcycles and bicyclists . So the same thing . Let's review , let's do a final thought on this . So what do you ?

Speaker 3 19:48

do the girl that's screaming here with the right hand .

Speaker 3 19:50

No , I know uh , the final thought on this is to bend your left arm down . I'm sorry , take that back . The left arm out the window , bent down the palm facing behind you to slow or stop . Left arm out extended straight out the window , parallel to the ground , with your palm facing downward for a left lane change . Left arm out the window , bent up at a 90-degree angle , is a right turn . And , of course , cyclists and motorcyclists you all have your workings to make safe lane changes . Look at that . That's my favorite right there .

Speaker 1 20:23

I use that one a lot . You know mine's usually just one finger , Forget about it Forget about it .

Speaker 4 20:30

You know what I'm saying . One finger pointing the direction you're going . That's right .

Speaker 3 20:33

Yeah , you stay out of this , morris , because we know that you bring nothing good to the table when it comes to hand signals , when it comes to lane changes , exactly , he's got to put down his brown water , all right .

Speaker 1 20:45

Time now on the Wind Bull Time Car Talk Show to get our car review from Mr Morris , who's been driving the Chrysler Pacifica .

Speaker 4 20:51

Very cool . Yes , sir , now this is the 2024 Chrysler Pacifica . Yes , sir , now this is the 2024 Chrysler Pacifica . This was first introduced in 2017 , and it is the only model left in the Chrysler brand lineup . That's all Chrysler makes now is the Pacifica minivan Wow model , and it actually for 2024 . You can actually get two different trim levels on it to select , which is a basic model , or you can step all the way up to the top , which is the pinnacle , which happens to be the one we're driving front wheel drive .

Speaker 4 21:25

We had the seven passenger model because we had the captain's seats in the second row up front . You're going to find the led projection headlights , got power folding heated side mirrors . Roof racks had a dual pane panoramic sunroof . Seemed like the whole top was coming off of that thing . It's got hands-free sliding side doors , which are real convenient . Got a hands-free power lift gate . Again , these are things that make it a little bit easier to get in and out and get your cargo in and out , and the Pinnacle happens to ride on some 18 by seven and a half inch gray aluminum wheels , so it looks kind of a nice elegant look to it .

Speaker 4 22:00

And on the inside of it . Now this is the plug-in hybrid . So it does not have the stow-and-go seating for the rear seat , because the battery is there . They do fold , they are , but they don't actually fold down into the floor , they'll actually just fold over . Now the third row will fold into the floor for more cargo space . The front seats all the interior is quilted , napa leather seating . The front seats are heated and ventilated . So it's got a real nice look to it with all the stitching , got some pillows .

Speaker 4 22:31

It's got a 10.1-inch touchscreen in the center stack . Now this is your main monitor . There in the dash you can find all your convenience controls and navigation , your 360 degree camera . But it's also got some 10.1 inch monitors on the back of the seat . Now this is where you're going to find your infotainment , including the Amazon Fire TV that comes standard with this , so all your rear passengers can watch TV . But you also have the FamCam in this vehicle and that's your interior camera so you can watch them , to watch what they're watching .

Speaker 4 23:06

Plenty of USB chargers , usb USB-C , apple CarPlay , android . Got a lot of technology throughout this thing , including 20 Harman Kardon speakers in the audio system . Now , up front , you're going to find that it's got a 3.6 liter V6 plug-in hybrid . Now this is equivalent to 260 horsepower . It will run approximately 30 miles on the electronic by itself . Excuse me , 32 miles on the electronic by itself .

Speaker 4 23:34

Now I drove this vehicle 282 miles . I averaged 26.1 miles to the gallon across that . Of course , I used the battery up really quick and um the base model . Now if you get the gas model , are you lost ? Yeah , I am 41 000 miles . I'm trying to watch the clock and do this 41 000 to get you into a base model .

Speaker 4 23:58

But the plug-in hybrid model will cost you $52,460 to get started . Of course , you can qualify , hopefully , for the $7,500 EV credit . Now the base trim price that we were driving is $59,495 . The as-tested price is $61,685 . And again , this is the only product in the Chrysler lineup and it is also the only plug-in minivan currently on the market . Toyota Sienna has a hybrid that starts at $37,600 . The Odyssey hybrid starts at $37,800 . The 2025 Kia Carnival hybrid will start at $41,000 . For 2025 , kia Carnival Hybrid will start at $41,000 . And so if you're looking for a hybrid in the van , you can find them several different ones , but this is the only plug-in hybrid that you're going to find and that is in the Chrysler Pinnacle or Select model Pacifica .

Speaker 1 24:56

Sounds to me like you had a little Don Armstrong going in there .

Speaker 4 24:58

Yeah , it got down there towards the end . It was , like you know , trying to , but I made the clock . You certainly did , congratulations on that so here's a quick question for you .

Speaker 1 25:08

What year was the original minivan introduced ? 1986 .

Speaker 4 25:13

Wrong . I'm going to say 78 . Wrong 84 .

Speaker 1 25:18

Actually it was an 83 model . Sorry , 83 year for an 84 model year . And that was the Dodge Caravan and the Plymouth Gremlin . You there I want to say Voyager , voyager . Very good , that was your test for the morning , barely got through it . Voyager , very good , that was your test for the morning , barely got through it . I know Again Today's In Real Time Car Talk .

Speaker 1 25:41

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Speaker 1 26:53

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Speaker 2 27:51

And online at gcautoshieldcom .

Speaker 1 27:51

That's it for this podcast episode of the In Wheel Time Car Show . I'm Don Armstrong , inviting you to join us for our live show every Saturday morning on Facebook , youtube , twitch and our InWheelTimecom website . Podcasts are available on Apple Podcasts , spotify , stitcher , iheart Podcast Podcast Addict TuneIn , pandora and Amazon Music . Keep listening and we'll see you soon .