Idle moments are few and far between in my life at the moment but a rare minute for procrastination had me flicking through YouTube car vids. And I stumbled across Loeb's record breaking Pikes Peak run from 2013.
Rohrl's record only stood for a year
Now I'm a big fan of Loeb. OK, it's pretty much a man crush truth be told. Hamilton could use a lesson in Gallic insouciance from his Monaco neighbour when it comes to balancing incredible skill in the car with playing it ice cool out of it. With nothing left to prove I particularly admire Loeb's ability to - seemingly effortlessly - transfer his talents to other motorsport challenges. Back in the day this was commonplace; witness Jim Clark and his contemporaries happily switching between single-seaters, GTs, touring cars and rallying seemingly for the love of it as much as anything else.
But what struck me watching Loeb's 8min 13.878sec Pikes Peak run was how undramatic it all was. Sure, there's excitement in the sheer speed and the achievement of obliterating the record. And the car is properly awesome. But Loeb's coolness means he's always been a calculated driver, not necessarily a flamboyant one. That's how you dominate your chosen sport for a over a decade of course.
Some family tree...
The inevitable next YouTube step was, of course, to revisit Climb Dance. Now this should need no introduction at all but it's one of those videos I could watch on a constant loop and never be bored. It is, of course, edited 'best of' highlights of Vatanen's participation in 1988 and not a full run like the Loeb vid. And, though the concessions to a mainstream audience are limited to some jaunty piano music and a few arty intro shots, the pace and sheer spectacle of Vatanen hanging the rear wheels over a dizzying death drop, the sense of scale and - of course - the famous one-handed driving into the low sun mean even non-car folk can stay the course. While for us geeks the sheer gutsiness of the driving, the wild looks of the car, the rawness of its power delivery and the knowledge it's as much the man as the machine just add up to something even Loeb's record time still can't beat. The commitment to beat Rohrl's time in the Sport Quattro from the previous year by just half a second adds further spice to the story too. I love that Peugeot returned with Loeb to put a new school spin on this classic story 25 years on. But for me Ari remains king of the hill.
Can Ken Block's pending ascent in the twin-turbo, 1,400hp Hoonicorn V2 Mustang beat that? We'll have to see when the film eventually goes live. But 20-odd years down the line I have a feeling I know which Pikes Peak vid I'll be replaying on my implanted contact lenses, or whatever we'll be watching our vids on by then.
