By now, we’ve all heard about Greg Tracy and his run at this year’s Pikes Peak International Hill Climb in which he shattered the record for the Electric Modified Division, while coming in second place overall as well. If pictures and words aren’t good enough for you, there’s now video of the record-setting run courtesy of GT Channel and a trio of well positioned GoPro cameras.
Tracy piloted his Mitsubishi MiEV Evolution III all-electric racing prototype to an astounding run that took just 9 minutes and 8.188 seconds on his way to thoroughly destroying the previous record for this category, which was set last year with a time of 9 minutes and 46.530 seconds. A more telling sign for how far Mitsubishi has come with this electric car, Tracy finished just 2.4 seconds behind the overall fastest car at Pikes Peak, a gasoline-powered Norma Le Mans prototype racecar driven by Romaine Dumas.
In addition to showing the course from Tracy’s perspective, we’re also getting a pretty good look at what the future has in store for automotive racing where the roaring engines are replaced by the high-pitch shriek of the electric motors. The electric racer proved to be more than up to the challenger of conquering the legendary 12.42-mile, 156-turn hill climb.
Improving over last year’s MiEV Evolution II racecar, the Mitsubishi MiEV Evolution III has a combined output of 603 hp, which is accomplished with an electric motor at each wheel controlled through an all-electric version of Mitsubishi’s Super All-Wheel Control (S-AWC) system. Other improvements include bigger brakes, bigger tires, stiffer chassis and lighter curb weight. T
Proving Tracy’s time was no fluke, Mitsubishi’s other MiEV Evolution III came in second in this division and third overall with a posted time of 9 minutes and 12.204 seconds. This year’s 1-2 finish in the Electric Modified Division is an improvement over last year’s 2-3 finish, but more importantly it shows how close an EV could be to setting the overall fastest climb.
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