Hooliganism ruined what was to be a fine day for a drive!

[deevergote]

Man, I'm gonna have to fire up the Playstation so I can take a drive on there now!
I wonder if the newer racing games have it completely paved.

[oni_cb7]

^ Second time. I went in 2010 when there were still a couple long dirt sections. Which is why I have slightly mixed feelings about the race now. It used to be such a big deal back then to break under 11 minutes but now a handful of people have gotten into the 8s fairly easily.

Some shots I took of the course in '10; I was at Devil's Playground and had so much more access to different views and corners:

I still love watching the older videos where almost the entire track was dirt. Those guys had balls of steel.

Best Video Ever:

1988 Pikes Peak Hill Climb, Ari Vatanen

https://youtu.be/UEuZG37gFdM

[CyborgGT]

Rhys Millen's run this year. He wasn't even the fastest of the day, but he seems to be the biggest story for being fastest EV

[deevergote]

Man, his execution is nearly flawless. I bet he knows that course like the back of his hand!

Something about the EV though... it's just not the same! I hope I don't live to see the day when internal combustion engines are completely replaced by electric motors.

You can hear the annoying siren thing you mentioned at the beginning of the video, too.

[CyborgGT]

If EVS do become the norm for street cars, or at least considerably more common than they are now, I can imagine the health and safety people stepping in and requiring some sort of noise to be made.

I do wonder about the future of motoring too. The topic of early-1900s America and the pretty even split back then between gas, electric, and steam cars is coming up a lot lately.

[deevergote]

I have a feeling that we won't likely see the demise of gasoline engines in our time... though I do expect it'll probably happen soon after.

I remember hearing years ago that the Prius was supposed to make a sound when cruising in electric mode only, because pedestrians were being caught off guard. I don't know if it ever actually happened, or if it was just someone saying that it SHOULD happen.
I did have a BMW i8 roll silently up to a stoplight next to me last summer when I was in San Diego. It was fascinating. But that was standing next to it... not in front of it!

It would be kinda cool if we could modify EVs to have customized "drive tones", like ringtones. I'd definitely get the sound made by the cars in the Jetsons.

[CyborgGT]

Lol, I came back on here after thinking of the Jetsons, that we'll probably end up with that whistling beep sound those flying cars made.

Hydrogen fuel cell cars are still a real possibility as well. Honda's got the FCX, and I believe Hyundai has a production model out now as well. But EVs have the support of motorsports for now, so the development in range and weight savings will probably come faster there than for hydrogen infrastructure.

[deevergote]

Yeah. In the US, the aging electrical infrastructure would be strained by large-scale use of EVs, but it's already in place and ready to be updated. Hydrogen infrastructure will take a long time to evolve, especially since most people associate hydrogen with things that go boom!

I'm very interested to see what happens as battery charging and capacity capabilities increase along with advances in solar cell technology. It would be fantastic if we got to a point where solar panels on a vehicle would be capable of generating sufficient energy to keep them charged without the need to be plugged in. Many hybrids and EVs incorporate solar panels now, but they aren't effective enough to really matter. Just gimmicks at this point, sadly.