Bobby Unser, Pikes Peak, 1958
OF ALL the many cars the XK engine has powered over its 70-year history, none is more unusual than a single-seater built for the Pikes Peak hill climb by the Unser family.
Pikes Peak is the highest summit of the southern Front Range of the Rocky Mountains in North America and was discovered by Lieutenant Zebulon Pike in 1806. It soon became a popular tourist attraction, and the first hill climb for cars and motorcycles was held there in 1916, the same year a dirt road to the summit was constructed.
The Pikes Peak International Hill Climb (PPIHC) – also known as ‘The Race to the Clouds’ – is now an annual automobile and motorcycle hill climb and, due to its challenges, is famous all over the world.
The track is 12.42 miles long, has 156 corners, and climbs 4,720ft on grades averaging 7.2 percent.
One name is linked to the event above all others: Unser.
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