This started a smokey, whistling arms race at the world’s most challenging hill climb. The paper was damaged in a big way when a driver crossed the finish line in 1.042 seconds in 2020. The record-setting Ford was destroyed this year when it fell off a cliff. Grégoire Blachon was that driver. This year, he returned to the top with a prototype powered by a tri-turbo Volkswagen four-cylinder diesel engine, unlike any other machine. Blachon worked as an engineer and told The Drive that he only participates in Pikes Peak events. In 2013, he drove for the first time in a diesel Subaru Impreza. In 2020, he’ll be back in an old VW Beetle. It also had a 2.0-liter VW TDI engine with compound turbos and a seven-speed Porsche PDK gearbox, so it wasn’t your typical Bug. The Beetle’s broken brakes show it had too much power to handle. This didn’t slow Blachon down much, so the 1949 Ford beat the diesel record by just one second. That meant that Blachon would be in the running for the record if he got better, which he did. Blachon made his appearance in 2023 with a Radical SR prototype powered by an improved version of the diesel engine in the Beetle. He couldn’t show his teeth in 2021 or 2022 because of bad weather. With the careful routing of a third turbo to improve engine response, the output went up to 440 horsepower. The system starts with a tiny 24-millimeter turbo that boosts the engine by 20 psi at idle and up to 45 psi at its most potent. When its turbine hits 240,000 rpm or 4,000 turns per second, its variable-geometry vanes open, sending the wastegate into the second 45-mm turbo. It has already wound up, and when it hits 165,000 turns per minute, it starts all over again to feed the third snail, which is 71 mm long. Because of everything, the most boost you can get is 70 psi. Because the air is thin on Pikes Peak, blowing a turbo by going too fast as possible, so one must also let out extra gas. Blachon added systems like turbo speed monitors, cylinder pressure gauges, exhaust gas temperature monitors, and more to this highly complex engine to keep it from blowing up. It’s said to be the first set-up of its kind, and Blachon, an engine expert at Audi Motorsport who may be to blame for diesel cars dominating at Le Mans, was delighted. Blachon said, “The throttle response is great, and the engine’s sound is like an aeroplane taking off.” The power has never changed; it has always been the same. Blachon makes it sound like his 1,640-pound Radical goes from 0 to 100 mph in only 5.8 seconds. It is said that an eighth of a mile will take 6.1 seconds and 118 mph. Blachon finally won in 2023, when his chassis could finally keep up with his engine, and he got a time of 10:25.071. That beats his old record by almost a minute. It also exceeds the old fuel mark. When Pikes Peak was a mixed-surface race, the 10-minute mark was considered impossible to break for a long time. It is also dangerously close. He also should be more relaxed because other diesel beat the old mark this year. A Nissan GT-R with a Power Stroke swap also met the goal. Its time was 11:06.535, and the people who worked on it told us they thought they could easily cut another 35 seconds off. If he doesn’t keep raising the bar, they’ll be able to get close to Blachon’s record. If he does not, someone else will. Pikes Peak is the last world-class race where any vehicle with four wheels can compete so that the next record-breaker could be anything.
