An electric car managed to not only win this year's Pikes Peak International Hill Climb in Colorado, but also set a new record for EV racing.
Forty-two-year-old professional driver Rhys Millen finished the race with his Drive eO PP03 in 9 minutes and 7.022 seconds on Sunday, surpassing rival Nobuhiro "Monster" Tajima, who drove a Tajima Motor car, by over 20 seconds, according to Ars Technica.
The Pikes Peak International High Climb, a.k.a. The Race to the Clouds, first came about in 1916 and is the second-oldest race in the U.S. The 12.4-mile race starts at an elevation of 9,390 feet from at Mile 7 and finishes at 14,110 feet, consisting of 156 turns.
Millen's car is making history by being the first electric car to win at Pikes Peak, Tech Times reported.
The annual PP03, built by Latvian engineering company Drive eO, comes with a 50 kWh lithium-ion battery, six YASA-400 electric motors with in-house developed eO controllers and an electrically assisted power steering. The vehicle has a peak of 1,368 horse power, a peak torque of 2160 Nm, a kerb weight of 2,646 pounds, and a top-speed of 162 miles per hour.
"This is a 4-wheel drive car sharing two independent motors ... and we lost power to the rear motors before half way, which was really disappointing," Millen said. "But hey, we still got a record. I should put a smile on my face, but we were 30 seconds off target."
While Millen's car is the fastest EV to finish Pikes Peak, the title of fastest time overall goes to nine-time World Rally Champion Sebastian Loeb, who set the record with his Peugeot 208 T16 in 2013.
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