*related=http://videosift.com/video/Climb-Dance
*related=http://videosift.com/video/Monster-Tajima-sets-a-new-Pikes-Peak-record-9-51-278
*related=http://videosift.com/video/Peak-Performance-Ford-Fiesta-RallyCross-Storms-Pikes-Peak

Climb Dance has been added as a related post - related requested by oritteropo.

Monster Tajima sets a new Pikes Peak record... 9:51.278!!! has been added as a related post - related requested by oritteropo.

Peak Performance! Ford Fiesta RallyCross Storms Pikes Peak has been added as a related post - related requested by oritteropo.

*french for the Peugeot 908 with a 3.2-litre, twin-turbo V6 engine, developing 875 bhp.
*ftw
*skillful
*quality

Sébastien has come a long way since i first seen him almost 10 years ago. It is good to see tear that mountain up!

@2:48 Crotch cam?

Boosting this quality contribution up in the Hot Listing - declared quality by lurgee.

Adding video to channels (French, Ftw, Skillful) - requested by lurgee.

I'm sorry, this cannot be compared to Vatanen's run. You can't equate paved and gravel. Besides... ONLY 2 minutes quicker?

In both cases the car is a monster Peugeot driven by a top rally driver, and each film has its own merits. What you can't compare is the times, 8m13.878s on bitumen vs 10m47.77 on dirt/gravel... except to say that each was really quick It certainly looked faster 25 years ago!

Vatanen has some interesting things to say about the earlier car, here - http://www.arivatanenrally.com/en/cars/peugeot-405-t16-pikes-peak.html

It looked like a very calm and collected run. But all of Loeb's stage runs have always looked that way. Slow is fast. Awesome to watch.

I would have liked to see some of the helicopter footage at some of the hairier spots up on the hill, but I suppose this was produced entirely by the sponsors with their own footage.

Some good points in this thread - I gotta say, watching the highlights of the record when it was on Gravel was a lot scarier, partly because of the gravel, but also because of the camera angles. As @rancor says, would be nice to have had some helicopter shots, especially near the top. Really well controlled run though, and the amount of power/torque that car has... is just ridiculous.

I'll give the guy all the credit for a suberb run (and balls of steel) but it's just not the same thing as driving it on gravel in a group B car.

Even if you ignore the sun in the eyes, stick gear changes and the way Vatanen had to use the clutch in the corners because the engine just had too much power, the sheer difficulty of traversing a low friction surface like gravel puts his time in a league of it's own.

Watch the two videos and you see the complete technical difference, Loeb goes in to low gear through the corners, doesn't drift at all (even drops in to first at points), and uses the cars acceleration combined with tarmac traction to get back up to speed. He even hits 6th gear quite a few times in the run. His control of the wheel is very smooth and measured.

Now watch Vatanen. Most of the corners, he's probably riding 2nd or 3rd and instead of breaking, is using the crazy horsepower of the engine to keep him going round the corner. He doesn't reach the same sort of top speeds of course because he's constantly fighting the loss of traction even in a straight line. His wheel control is excellent, but you can observe how he is constantly fighting to maintain his place on the road.

I suspect Loeb probably could better Vatanen's time with the same car and similar conditions, but we'll never know.

Vatanen also had some ball-raising to-the-edge corners exactly where Loeb had nice, sturdy crash rails. Not that either hit, but Loeb certainly didn't have the psychological pressure of probably getting airborne of a cliff.

Moving this video to oritteropo's personal queue. It failed to receive enough votes to get sifted up to the front page within 2 days.

*beg

Sending this video to Beggar's Canyon to plea for a little attention - beg requested by original submitter oritteropo.

*dead

This video has been declared non-functional; embed code must be fixed within 2 days or it will be sent to the dead pool - declared dead by Lilithia.

Thanks for the note, fixed.

*actionpack *sports

Adding video to channels (Actionpack, Sports) - requested by ant.