Tajima, who has being racing at Pikes Peak every year since 1988, was followed in the Unlimited class by Rhys Millen in the modified Hyundai PM580, with a time of 10:09.242. Unfortunately, the Japanese driver says this year's edition of Pikes Peak was probably the last one competitors had a change of partially running on gravel, since the course will most likely be completely covered by tarmac by 2012.
Tajima is the first and only person to break the 10-minute barrier up the mountain, a barrier he himself created with his 2007 record run of 10:01.408. The next closest finisher at this year's hill climb was Rhys Millen, nearly 18 seconds behind.
A camera was mounted on top of Tajima's 2011 Suzuki SX4 Hill Climb Special, and the footage recently posted on Youtube is excellent in quality. You can hear that amazingly vigorous 3.1-liter twin-turbocharged V6 pushes the car to speeds that make your hair stand on end. The engine is mated to a specially-designed close-ratio transmission.
Dacia's Duster ‘No Limit’ finished in third in the Unlimited class and fared quite well for it's first competition on a mountain and give it was down on power compared to Takima. With Frenchman Jean Philippe Dayraut behind the wheel, the GT-R-powered Duster performed well and proved it was built well for the task at hand.
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