Hyundai is going back to tackle the Peak. If you have to ask, "what peak?" then you clearly haven't been paying attention to motor sports history.
The Peak. There is only one. Only one truly glorious hillclimb (well, one since they stopped using the Grossglockner Austria, but that's another day's story...) and only one that has reverberated to the names of Andretti, Unser, Vatanen, and Loeb. I'm talking about Pikes Peak.
Vertiginous road
The Pikes Peak International Hillclimb is held each year up a winding, twisting, vertiginous road that snakes its way to the summit of Pikes Peak in Colorado. It is a 19.99km route to the top (12.42 miles if you're reading this in an American accent) and the finish line is 4,302 metres (14,115 feet) high.
This is a legendary place. It's been won by the likes of Mario Andretti, who once tackled the Peak in an actual mid-engined Indycar racer, and that was when it was mostly still a dirt road. Mario said that he went faster on the sections with hedges and trees at the side of the track, because they meant he couldn't see the drop...
Walter Rohrl set fastest time up the Peak in 1987 in the mighty Audi Sport Quattro S1 E2, while the most famous ascent is surely that of Ari Vatanen in a purpose-built Peugeot 405 racer, which even got its own special film - Climb Dance - and if you haven't seen that, get thee to YouTube right now. We'll wait.
While Pikes Peak has welcomed (and occasionally punished) such famous names over the years, Hyundai has recently held a good claim to be king of the mountain. In fact, the Korean brand has been represented on the high-octane, high-altitude twists of the Peak since as far back as 1992, when famed New Zealand racer Rod Millen took a showroom-spec Hyundai Scoupe equipped with the company's new turbocharged, 16-valve, dual overhead camshaft Alpha series engine up the hill, winning his class in the process.
Modified Elantras and V8 Genesis Coupes
A year later, Millen was back to take on the Pikes Peak Open Division - for production-based cars with unlimited modifications - finishing second in a Hyundai Elantra. By 1997, Paul Choiniere - an American rally driver - was winning that class in a modified Elantra, and it was Choiniere who would spearhead Hyundai's efforts in Colorado for the next several years.
It was in 2009, though, that the first big prize came Hyundai's way - Rhys Millen (yes, son of Rod) won the Time Attack 2-Wheel Drive division in a much-modified Hyundai Genesis V8 coupe, setting a class record as he did so. In 2011, Rhys would just miss out on setting a blistering sub-ten-minute time in his Hyundai RMR PM58 (a purpose-built race car using Hyundai power). Rhys did take the two-wheel drive class win again in a Genesis Coupe though.
In 2012, though, Millen the younger took a Hyundai Genesis Coupe to the ultimate prize - King Of The Mountain - setting a 9-minute 46 seconds time up Pikes Peak in the first year that the course was made up entirely of tarmac roads.
This year, Hyundai is planning to bring another big name to the top of the peak - Dani Sordo, who you will of course recognise from flinging Hyundai WRC i20 rally cars between trees and snowdrifts in the World Rally Championship, will be part of a four-driver squad which will tackle the Pike in a group of racing cars which Hyundai has yet to announce. Sordo will be joined by Paul Dallenbach - an eleven-time Pikes Peak International Hill Climb winner who set the overall record in 1993 - and Robin Shute - a four-time overall winner and King of the Mountain title holder at Pikes Peak. The fourth driver is still - tantalisingly - to be announced.
The drive is a most critical element
"The driver is one of the most critical elements to being successful at the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb," said Till Wartenberg, Hyundai vice president and head of N Brand and Motorsport. "We have selected top experts like Robin Shute and Paul Dallenbach who have won the event overall and in class 15 times. Both these drivers have an incredible track record and know the climb well. The addition of Hyundai Motorsports WRC driver Dani Sordo is very exciting and will help us engage a global audience for the hill climb.
"Pikes Peak is one of the unique and historical challenges still left in motorsports," said Randy Parker, CEO, Hyundai Motor America. "It has stood the test of time because the mountain never relents. The weather makes getting a clean run extremely difficult and to conquer the mountain everything must go perfectly. A tremendous amount of preparation and a little bit of luck is required to break and set records. Going to Pikes Peak will prove the fortitude that these four vehicles have."
"The Pikes Peak International Hill Climb represents a unique and exciting new challenge for our team because Hyundai already has a rich history of participating in the event going back 30 years," said Bryan Herta, an American racing legend and who these days is president and CEO, Bryan Herta Autosport which is working with Hyundai on its Pikes Peak programme. "We're relying on a lot of experts in the event as well as Hyundai's engineering and experience. We want to showcase what the Hyundai vehicles can do in one of the toughest challenges in motorsport."