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July 8th, 2012 will mark the twenty-five year anniversary win of “perhaps” the greatest rally driver of all time—Walter Röhrl. And in recent years, he has been retained as the senior test driver for Porsche road cars
Cool and collected, Röhrl piloted an Audi sport quattro S1 up the world’s highest highway in record time of 10:47.85 minutes.
Walter Röhrl triumphed at Pikes Peak 25 years ago
* Convincing victory in 1987 in Colorado with Sport quattro S1
* 19.99 kilometres, 156 corners, with over 600 bhp
* Audi won the famous hill-climb race three years running
Of the many rally victories recorded by Audi in the 1980s, the last one was particularly memorable: 25 years ago, on 11 July 1987, Walter Röhrl and his Audi Sport quattro S1 won the Pikes Peak Hill Climb in the US state of Colorado.
Walter Röhrl and Audi, the best driver and the most successful rallying team at that time, enjoyed a close and always extremely intensive relationship. Röhrl, the world champion of 1980 and 1982, had joined the Ingolstadt team in 1984 at a time when the brand with the four rings dominated the entire rallying scene.
The permanent four-wheel drive system left the rear-wheel-drive competitor vehicles with no chance whatsoever. A mere two years after first testing the Audi quattro at the end of 1980, Audi had already clinched the manufacturers’ world title. The Finn Hannu Mikkola won the drivers’ world championship in 1983, and in the following year Audi took both titles, with Stig Blomqvist from Sweden topping the drivers’ rankings.
Walter Röhrl was emotional and happy following his victory, and seemed close to tears. He later stated:
“All I can say is that it was great to take part. It was crazy, but often it is in fact the crazy things which are the best in life. It was the very pinnacle of what can be done with a rally car.”
To commemorate this victory, ACNA members will gather at the starting line to watch as racers rev their engines, embracing the mighty challenge as they quest for victory, just as Walter did 25 years ago…..http://forums.quattroworld.com/quattro/msgs/6277.phtml
Stay with the video, for the most part not in English..but great video and music to your ears!
It’s a gathering of like-minded Audi enthusiasts that will share a spirit of adventure as they gather for the Pikes Peak International Hillclimb–Race to the Clouds.
At the age of 16, Röhrl began working for the commercial director of a company that legally represented the Bishop of Regensburg along with 6 further Bishops in Bavaria, and skiied in his spare time. In time he became a qualified ski instructor and a keen driver, and became the chauffer to the commercial director, covering up to 120,000 kilometres annually. Some unqualified reports have stated he was once the Bishop’s own driver, but this has been acknowledged as untrue. Having also now been active in sports like skiing, Röhrl was invited to drive his first rally in 1968.
Röhrl was a World Rally Championship favorite throughout the 1970s and 1980s, winning the Monte Carlo Rally four times with four different marques. His co-driver for many years was Christian Geistdörfer. His Fiat 131 Abarth carried him to the 1980 title, clinched with his victory in that year’s San Remo rally, but it was arguably his equivalent success in 1982 that impressed most of all, with Röhrl fending off audacious four-wheel drive opposition, led by Audi‘s resurgent Michèle Mouton, to take the title, by virtue of consistency, in his increasingly outmoded rear-drive Opel Ascona 400. It was also during this time that he won the African Rally Championship, in 1982.
In 1983, he joined Lancia to pilot the new, rear-wheel drive Lancia 037, before finally changing his machinery, in 1984, to the four-wheel drive Audi Quattro, an automobile actually incidentally produced in his home state of Bavaria.
Despite being selective in his choice of top-level events, albeit during a time when this was a less unusual occurrence for top-line drivers in the championship, he still scored 14 WRC victories in his career.
Röhrl was also successful in road racing events, and called “Genius on Wheels” by Niki Lauda. In the 1992 24 Hours Nürburgring race which saw fog and heavy rain in the night, he hardly slowed down, anticipating the corners by timing. The race was nevertheless interrupted for hours.
Best rally driver of all time
In Italy, a jury selected 100 motor sports experts from around the world named Walter Röhrl as “the best rally driver of all time.”
Here are the standings table from the magazine “Rally-Sprint” (anno numero 3 1/2):
In Italy, he was elected “Rallye driver of the century”. In France he was elected “Rallye driver of the millennium” in November 2000.
In recent years, he has been retained as the senior test driver for Porsche road cars, famously setting quick laptimes for them testing round the famous Nürburgring Nordschleife, for example with the Porsche Carrera GT.
Röhrl was expected to make his competitive return to the Nürburgring 24 hour race in 2010 at the wheel of a Porsche 911 GT3 RS. However, he was forced to withdraw from the event due to a back injury. It was to be his first 24 hour race in 17 years, since his last start in 1993.
This year it’ll be different, as it’s the first year where the whole 19.9 kilometre climb is lined with tarmac. Will he be any less sideways? We doubt it.
If you can’t make it to Colorado on July 8th, you can watch Rohrl’s 1987 run below. Once you get past the German bits, there’s some handy footwork, wailing waste-gate chatter, a 2.1-litre five-cylinder engine screaming at 8,000rpm and a long way down if it all goes wrong. You’re going to like it…
Seven-Time Champion Jeff Zwart Will Drive the Car this Saturday June 18th From California to Colorado
Atlanta – June 16, 2011 – Seven-time Pikes Peak Hillclimb champion Jeff Zwart, from Woody Creek, Colo., will not only take Porsche’s fastest road car ever up the mountain next week at the world’s most famous hillclimb, but he will drive the street-legal, 620 horsepower 911 GT2 RS the 1100 miles from Porsche Motorsports North America in Santa Ana, Calif. to the event.
Zwart, a commercial film director, will defend his 2WD Time Attack class championship from last year, when he smashed the class record by more than 30 seconds in a modified Porsche 911 GT3 Cup road racing car. He returns to his roots at Pikes Peak – testing the limits of the ultimate street Porsche on the mountain.
Footage of Jeff in one of his shakedown runs in the 911 GT3 in preparation for his record setting Pike’s Peak hillclimb. by Porsche on Nov 24, 2010
With technical support from Porsche Motorsport North America (PMNA) and Michelin Tires, Zwart will be contesting the 89th running of the hillclimb classic, the second oldest race in America (behind the Indy 500).
Zwart said that running a 2WD car – only the third time he has done that in his previous ten starts – will be easier because of last year’s experience, but the Porsche 911 GT2 RS, one of just 500 produced, will still be a bit of a handful. He also entered a previous generation Porsche 911 GT2 in 2003.
“Although I have gained more than 150 horsepower from last year’s car, I have also gained a lot of chassis weight – the difference between a street car and a race car. Also, I made good use of the sequential-shift transmission last year in the race car, and now have a six-speed manual gearbox to operate through Pikes Peaks’ 156 turns,” said Zwart.
The course is even more challenging for the veteran Pikes Peak competitors this year, as there are only two miles of gravel left on the mountain, which is slowly being paved completely to help attract additional tourist traffic. By next year, the road, which starts at 9,390 feet above sea level, and ends at 14,110 feet above sea level, will be all tarmac.
The road trip
This Saturday, June 18, Zwart and his crew will pick up the car at Porsche Motorsports North America in Orange County, California, and drive it over the Interstate Highway system to Colorado Springs, arriving sometime Sunday evening.
“We wanted to show the sports car enthusiasts that the Porsche 911 continues to be a car that meets multiple transportation needs, something its owners have known for years. You do not have to hit the top speed of 205 miles-per-hour to enjoy this car on the road, yet we hope to use the 600-plus horsepower to get us up Pikes Peak fast enough to win the class and break our own record,” said Zwart.
Last year, Ex-DTM pilot Roland Asch (Germany), race driver and TV commentator Patrick Simon (Germany), as well as journalists Horst von Saurma (Germany) and Chris Harris (Great Britain), drove a street-legal Porsche 911 GT3 RS, from the factory race shop in Weissach to the Nurburgring in Germany for the 24-hour race. The German and his three teammates completed a total of 145 laps without any technical mishaps.
Zwart has won his class at Pikes Peak – all in Porsche Turbo street cars – in 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, and 2002 – plus his 2010 win in the naturally aspirated 911 GT3 Cup, setting new class records four times. Recently, he co-drove a Porsche Cayenne with Pikes Peak veteran Paul Dallenbach at the challenging TransSyberia Rally (Moscow to Mongolia) in 2007. He also has an SCCA PRO Rally Championship (1990 with Rod Millen) and a SCORE Baja 1000 class win (2004) to his credit.
The 89th running of Pikes Peak will start official practice on Wednesday, June 22, with Zwart scheduled to run the bottom third of the 12.42-mile course. The Porsche will run the middle part of the course during Thursday practice, and the top part of the course on Friday.
Results will be posted on the official Pikes Peak web site – www.ppihc.com.
SOURCE: Porsche Cars North America, Inc. (PCNA), based in Atlanta, Ga.
JEFF ZWART – A MAN, A MOUNTAIN AND A PORSCHE
Porsche Motorsports of North America, Inc. presentation with Jeff Zwart at Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion – August, 14th, 2010. Jeff Zwart talks about his record setting Pikes Peak International Hill climb
video by Dede Seward
More updates to follow as they come in regarding Jeff Zwart Pikes Peak Hill Climb.
Feel free to comment below, love to hear from you. Thank you for all your support.
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These slow motion video’s are Mattzel89‘s way to describe the awesomeness of racing, and I think every petrolhead on this planet will thank him for this great video. This video is the third of the Racing in Slow Motion series, you can see the first two parts below, they are worth your time too.
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Just know this is a long and slow video, if you’re not prepared to sit through 8 minutes of slow motion, move on. This is for the motorsports fans. A stunning collection of 3 video’s that captures racing in a way that we usually don’t get to see it in the fine details..
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