About the event:

Participants come from all edges of the United States, Canada and Mexico to test themselves and their motorized equipment on the fastest and most challenging 1-mile track in the world. They achieve their top speed in 1-Mile and shut down in a 1/2-Mile. This bi-annual Motorsports Festival is created for performance enthusiast – Welcoming Motorcycles, Performance Street Cars, Race Cars and Land Speed Racers.

Spectators enjoy seeing the cars and motorcycles on the track and visiting with the participants in the paddock. There are onsite concessions to enjoy while at the event. For more details, see the rules and regulations section for participants and spectators.

Get off the highway and come out to The Texas Mile. It is like running on a straight 1 1/2 mile section of open highway without the fear of tickets and jail time. A High Speed Shoot-out and Land Speed Racing Venue that compares to the likes of the legendary Bonneville that beckons one to “Drive in Your World, Race in Ours”!

The Pikes Peak Sy ran in the 12 minute range up Pikes Peak back in 2002-2003. Basics include:

• 800 hp Aluminum Bowtie V6 dry sump turbo intercooled motor, rear mounted radiator
• Wide body fiberglass body and doors.
• Full PPIHC rated safety structure
• 4l80E w/ manual valve body and Art Car shifter
• Baer Alcon B Type 6 piston forged aluminum front brakes calipers and 4 piston rear calipers
• Custom front tubular a-arms coilovers, custom rear 4 link rear suspension coil overs
• Momo Suede leather racing seats
• Momo Corse racing wheel with quick release hub
• Integrated fire supressor system
• BBS Forged Aluminum/Magnesium racing wheels with new BFG Pikes Peak Gravel Tires, 335 17 x12 rear 315 17 x 11front

Footage and images can be seen here:

Footage 1 Footage 2 Footage 3
Pikes Peak Syclone Gallery

After a hectic day at Sierra Sierra Enterprises in Minden, NV including their dyno temporarily malfunctioning as well as my truck, we were able to continue onward with a successful tune.

Our goal was to make safe and reliable conservative power so we could beat the living snot out of the truck for hours at various road racing venues.

We managed 410 hp and 440 ft lbs of torque on a Mustang dyno with no correction factor at roughly 5000 ft altitude and 80+ ambient temps on a relatively small turbo.

I want to give a personal thanks to the following folks for making this all possible.

Jeremy Kappus – He is a very experienced and competent tuner who really understand how motors work and how to tune based on what the motor needs, not just by throwing numbers at the tune. He has a reputation for making cars run fast and safe. He primarily specializes in tuning imports, particularly Mitsubishi Evos including his own that runs 120 mph trap speed at Top Gun Raceway(4000 ft elevation) on a stock turbo! He learned how to tune his own cars out of necessity because he was fed up being screwed over by incompetent tuners.

Alex (qbnkiller) – Alex was a tremendous help to us because he really helped Jermey lessen his learning curve with the Big Stuff 3 system. If it wasn’t for Alex, we may have not been ready in time for our dyno day. Alex is also an automotive enthusiast who had been screwed by incompetent tuners to the point he took matters into his own hands and learned how to tune out of sheer necessity. He unselfishly gave at least 3 hours of his personal time to lend us a hand. I can’t thank him enough.

Harry Anderson – As you all know he is one of the more experienced tuners on the board. He also unselfishly gave us a ton of input allowing us to more quickly grasp the function of the Big Stuff 3 system particularly with the transmission function. Harry provided us with a transmission shift calibration that would be optimal for our engine combo.

Sierra Sierra Enterprises – None of the dyno tuning would have been possible if it wasn’t for their graciousness allowing us to utilize their AWD mustang dyno. They are not open to the public and have the dyno installed specifically for their own race car. Sierra Sierra Enterprises is not a “tuner shop” rather they are a real road racing team with many years experience in the upper ranks of open wheel racing. They hold the offical Buttwillow time attack lap record in a Mitsubishi Evo, beating the previous record held by HKS of Japan. Their website is www.sierrasierra.com .

We’ll be heading out to Top Gun Raceway in Fallon, NV tomorrow to quantify the new found power.

We’ll keep you posted on our results.

The Spectre 341 Challenge is in the books and we came away with some mixed feelings after what was an awesome event up until the last 10 minutes of competition when a fellow competitor lost his life after plunging over a cliff.

“Keep your foot to the floor until the thrill of speed is overcome by the fear of death.” And that was in play here if you have never been up this road this fast.

Quote by Lou Gigliotti – LG Motorsports (about Spectre 341 Challenge and eventual winner)

Starting in 2007 our beloved GMC Syclone began its transformation into what you see in the accompanying photographs. I cannot even begin to explain in words how much time, money and and effort was put into this project. Trying to turn chicken shit into chicken salad required an engineering feat of epic proportions.

The inaugural Spectre 341 Challenge hill climb was held on June 25-26, 2010 on the truck route below Virginia City, Nevada known as Hwy 341. The roadway was temporarily closed to the public for the event so folks with no common sense(like us) could scorch up the 5.2 mile treacherous route.

What makes this event particularly dangerous is the fact that this road was never designed with road racing in mind. Big drop offs, no guard rails (where they should exist), rock walls, horses, debris, less than ideal asphalt and even rogue automobiles are a potential threat. The road follows the natural curve of the mountain and brings all sorts of interesting variables into play.

The initial 1/3 of the road quickly gains elevation through relatively tight camber turns eventually slightly leveling out into some very hairy high speed sections and ultimately tightening back up into a slalom series of twisty corners with several off camber sections that can catch even the most experienced drivers out if they not familiar with the road.

Our Syclone posted a best time of 3:53 seconds for 11th place overall. Anything under 4 minutes is flying and we averaged a speed of 80 mph up 341 which is a lot considering many corners are marked 25 mph!

Professional race car drivers in big dollar monster rides dominated the event. ALMS GT2 and ex World Challenge driver Lou Gigliotti ended up winning in his modified ZR1 Corvette with Steve Millen taking 2nd place honors in his monster Nissan GTR.

It should be noted that the Viper ACR was deemed ineligible by race officials as it was running tires with an 80 tread wear rating. The rules state tires must be 100 tread wear or higher. Britt Mark Gillies from Car & Driver Magazine drove this car and from what I have been told he was faster than Michael Schumacher in a professional race in the past.

Worthy of mentioning was a local guy and personal friend Jeremy Kappus, who ended up taking 3rd in his 2006 Mitsubishi Evolution RS, giving the pros quite a scare. He actually was leading after the 1st day!  A perfect combination of car setup and driving talent.

Unfortunately, all good things must come to an end and that is exactly what happened. VR Alexander was driving his modified Porsche 911 Turbo and carried too much speed into the turn, locked up his brakes and plunged 200 feet off the side of a cliff after the big straight and was instantly killed.

Ironically the Spectre 341 Challenge was the first officially timed hill climb on Hwy 341 since the last officially timed event back in 2002 when a driver lost control of his Dodge Viper killing himself and his passenger.

According to all reports the Spectre 341 will return to the infamous Hwy 341 in 2011.