Powerful cars, high speeds, thin air, blinding sunlight and no guardrails to keep competitors from the edge. These are the ingredients of the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb, also known as The Race to the Clouds, the annual hillclimb up the 4,302m summit of Pikes Peak in Colorado.
Commissioned by Peugeot and directed by Jean Louis Mourey, Climb Dance is an award-winning short film featuring Ari Vatanen blasting all the way to the top of the peak in the Rocky Mountains. Vatanen is perhaps most famous for winning the World Rally Championship drivers’ title in 1981 and the Paris Dakar Rally four times.
In this video, the Finnish rally driver was driving a four-wheel drive, all-wheel steering Peugeot 405 Turbo 16 GR. Only two examples of this highly modified car were made, one raced hill climbs and the other competed in the Paris-Dakar rally. The Peugeot was powered by a turbocharged 1.9 liter four-cylinder engine which delivered an impressive 650 horsepower and 685Nm of torque.
Enjoy one of the most spectacular race car footage ever recorded, showing an automotive ballet as Vatanen gracefully slides his car to the summit, eventually turning in a record 10:47.77 that year. Click here for the record breaking run of 2011. Impressive, isn’t it?
