stevedj98
Well-known member
Since the results of the LEAF at the Hill Climb have not been posted here yet, I struck out on my own to see what happened. The following is an email I've already sent to my closest buddies in cyberspace:
Nowhere on SPEED, FOX, NBC, TNT or any of the other kajillion channels could I find the historic "89th Annual Pikes Peak International Hill Climb" on Sunday. What's wrong with this country? Hey, this sounds like an "extreme sport" to me.
The races were LIVE on the Internet, and my particular interest was the all-electric 2011 Nissan LEAF that was entered in this year's climb. And guess what. The LEAF came in 2nd place!------to the only other car in the electric division------a modified Summit HER-02 (whatever that is).
Actually, from motorcycles to vintage cars, there were around 150 vehicles in various classes attempting the 12.42 mile climb, and 156 turns, from 9,390 feet to the top of Pikes Peak at 14,110 feet. Of course, all the internal combustion engines lost power in the thin air at that high of an altitude, so I was interested to see what an electric car would do. Actually the LEAF did pretty well at 14 minutes and 33 seconds. I'd love to know how much battery charge was left!
In pure timings, the LEAF beat a 2010 Ford Ranger pickup by 15 seconds and a 2011 Honda Pilot by a big 64 seconds. It also bested a 1998 Acura Integra, a 2001 Audi A4, and was only 19 seconds behind a 2008 Mustang. Interesting to note, that 19 vehicles did not even finish the race.
The overall winner was a Japanese guy in a heavily modified Suzuki SX4 Crossover at a record breaking 9 minutes 51 seconds.
Oh well, there is always next year.
Steve
Nowhere on SPEED, FOX, NBC, TNT or any of the other kajillion channels could I find the historic "89th Annual Pikes Peak International Hill Climb" on Sunday. What's wrong with this country? Hey, this sounds like an "extreme sport" to me.
The races were LIVE on the Internet, and my particular interest was the all-electric 2011 Nissan LEAF that was entered in this year's climb. And guess what. The LEAF came in 2nd place!------to the only other car in the electric division------a modified Summit HER-02 (whatever that is).
Actually, from motorcycles to vintage cars, there were around 150 vehicles in various classes attempting the 12.42 mile climb, and 156 turns, from 9,390 feet to the top of Pikes Peak at 14,110 feet. Of course, all the internal combustion engines lost power in the thin air at that high of an altitude, so I was interested to see what an electric car would do. Actually the LEAF did pretty well at 14 minutes and 33 seconds. I'd love to know how much battery charge was left!
In pure timings, the LEAF beat a 2010 Ford Ranger pickup by 15 seconds and a 2011 Honda Pilot by a big 64 seconds. It also bested a 1998 Acura Integra, a 2001 Audi A4, and was only 19 seconds behind a 2008 Mustang. Interesting to note, that 19 vehicles did not even finish the race.
The overall winner was a Japanese guy in a heavily modified Suzuki SX4 Crossover at a record breaking 9 minutes 51 seconds.
Oh well, there is always next year.
Steve
