Hyundai conquers Pikes Peak with its Ioniq 5 N

Hyundai brought the whole dog and pony show to Pikes Peak this June: four cars, a World Rally star, last-minute fill-in Randy Pobst, a full crew and a giant, diesel-powered, portable charger setup.

“First of all, it’s very renowned,” Till Wartenberg, head of the N Brand and Motorsport, says about the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb and why Hyundai remains involved. “People talk about it. We wanted to do something for the American market as well.”

And then, he adds, you have to look at all the factors in the brand’s favor: “Can you showcase your technology? Can you do something new? Have you been there, do we have a history? What can we take from it?”

In Hyundai’s case, this year’s race–officially called the Broadmoor Pikes Peak International Hill Climb, brought to you by Gran Turismo–was a place to show off the brand’s new Ioniq 5 N in a rather severe-duty setting: a 12.42-mile course that ends 14,115 feet above sea level, all surrounded by fresh–and thin–Colorado air.

Hyundai first ran Pikes Peak back in 1992, with Rod Millen winning the 2-Wheel Drive Showroom Stock division in a Scoupe. Since then, the brand has regularly fielded entries: rally cars, time attack cars, single-seater prototypes. Hyundai has finished first overall, too.

As Wartenberg explains, though, this year’s Ioniq 5 N program came together rather quickly–in less than 12 months. “The Koreans are very fast,” he notes. Also helping the accelerated pace: a very good relationship with Bryan Herta Autosport, the brand’s partner in IMSA and other motorsports endeavors.

Four cars were entered: two very stock aside from minor upgrades centered around safety and two other modified, TA Spec examples. The latter two add upgraded dampers, motorsports-spec brakes, big aero and Yokohama slicks. Hyundai says software tuning upped the output of the rear motor by 37 horsepower, raising the total to 678.

“We are very proud that it is a production-level EV car,” Wartenberg notes. “So whatever you see racing on Sunday and in our testing, the next day you can go to the dealer showroom and buy that car and drive it yourself.”

The street car, like the race car, is fun, he stresses. And despite the latest Hyundai performance EVs, he adds, N is still not limited to any kind of technology.

“One car doesn’t make a brand,” he notes. “We’re not saying we’re doing 100% EV. I do believe that our responsibility is to offer fun to drive with whatever technology we’re driving–let it be hydrogen, let it be hydrogen as a fuel, let it be fuel cell, let it be battery-electric, let it be a combination of both, which the N Vision 74 would be, and let’s see what that might be in the future.”

Slight change of plans as Pikes Peak approached, however: Team driver and Pikes Peak champion Paul Dallenbach had an off in one of the stock cars and had to withdraw, while Randy Pobst got a call the Tuesday before the event to replace Robin Shute, last year’s Pikes Peak overall winner.

At the last minute, Randy Pobst was tapped to drive for Hyundai. Despite the unusual nature of the event, he says that decades of autocross experience helped. Photography Credit: Scott Arnold

Pobst would drive one of the TA Spec cars. Dani Sordo, part of Hyundai’s World Rally squad for a decade yet a rookie at Pikes Peak, would drive the other TA Spec entry.

“It’s crazy,” Sordo tells us. “You come here for only one time.” As the mountain road remains open to the public the days before the race, teams can only practice in the early morning hours of the day–and only sections at a time.

Pobst, on the other hand, first ran up the mountain in 1995, back when the hillclimb filled a spot on the IMSA Bridgestone Supercar Series schedule. He returned in 2012 and finished 10th overall last year in a Tesla Model S Plaid.

He stresses that his autocross experience helps, especially in the switchbacks. “Those turns are so tight, they’re at autocross speeds,” he explains. “I think they’re 30 mph or less, even in a good race car. It’s almost full lock, especially the W’s.

“Basically,” he continues, “you gotta trail-brake the living daylights out of it. You gotta look way ahead and you gotta wait. You just gotta wait.

“The tighter the turn, the longer you have to wait to get the car rotated and pointed toward the exit. That’s a difficult lesson to learn. I think a lot of road racers never learn that; they just adjust their cars to turn quicker and turn more.”

Another skill learned in autocross that helps at Pikes Peak: diving in with a lack of practice. “Autocrossers don’t get to practice. At Pikes Peak, we have to figure it out right away, so even if it’s not the road, it’s the grip,” he explains. “So the turns are different because the grip is different.”

And a third skill Pobst brings over from autocross? The precision. “You don’t have extra room,” he says of Pikes Peak. “You can’t drop a wheel at the exit. You can drop a wheel at the apex, but not very much because that’s a drop-off and it’s dirty and it’ll cut the tire. It’s hazardous! And in an autocross, we go to the Solo Nationals, we’re not hitting cones. That’s hazardous! You hit a cone, you’re dead.”

Hyundai’s reward for this year’s Pikes Peak effort? Third overall in a car that, aside from aero and a few mods, remains largely close to stock. Photography Credit: Rupert Berrington

The Hyundai crew survived Pikes Peak. Sordo finished third overall with a time of 9:30.852, while Pobst, facing a dusty track as the first car to take the green flag, placed eighth overall. Even after stalling on course, however, Romain Dumas finished first overall with a sub-9-minute time in a Ford F-150 Lightning. Automotive media personality Ron Zaras, Hyundai’s third driver, ran a 10:49 in the nearly stock Ioniq5 N.

Comments

Colin Wood Associate Editor
8/6/24 3:47 p.m.

I can only hope that, someday, I'll get called up days before an event and asked if I can race.

J.A. Ackley Senior Editor
8/6/24 4:48 p.m.

The EVs certainly showed their speed at Pikes Peak this year. Looking forward to what shows up next year.

oppositelock New Reader
8/6/24 9:25 p.m.

Pikes Peak is one of the best places to race an EV. Normal cars lose 40% of their power because of altitude while EV's lose nothing. It is always interesting to see times at the bottom as the EV's are slower but the further up the mountain they go they pick up a ton of speed or more accurately the race cars with combustion engines lose their speed.