Damien Smith
Britain’s ‘King of the Mountain’ will return to Pikes Peak this Sunday for the 102nd running of the great International Hillclimb. But this time, expat Robin Shute has lined up something entirely different for the 12.42-mile, 156-turn Colorado mountain sprint. Instead of shooting for his fifth overall victory in six years in his self-prepared Unlimited class Wolf sports racer, the Norfolk-born Pikes Peak specialist has accepted a welcome diversion to set new EV benchmarks with Hyundai.
Shute will race one of two steroidal Ioniq 5 N TA Spec production racers, with Hyundai’s part-time World Rally Championship star Dani Sordo in the other one. Shute himself and fellow engineer Tim Whitteridge have led the development of the modified electric SUVs, which are run by former Indycar ace Bryan Herta’s eponymous squad.
They have also worked on a pair of unmodified production models, to be driven by three-time King of the Mountain Paul Dallenbach and a former racing ally of the late Ken Block, Ron Zaras.
“The Ioniq 5 N is a fabulous road car, so it was really exciting to be asked,” says Shute, who was approached for the project in December last year. “To work with a major car maker and Bryan Herta to create a Pikes Peak monster was something I couldn’t turn down.”
MOUNTAIN MODS
Hyundai has previous at Pikes Peak, dating back to 1992, when Rod Millen won a showroom stock division in a Scoupe. It returned in 2012, the first year the course was fully paved, setting a mark of 9min 46.164sec with a Genesis Coupe driven by Millen’s son Rhys.
That time is the one Shute has set a personal aim to beat as Hyundai creates fresh targets for modified and production electric SUVs, using the ‘The Race to the Clouds’ to boost the launch of the Ioniq 5 N in the US.
Shute was delighted with the “free rein” that Hyundai gave him. “It’s amazing to have its wealth of resource, and in a compressed timeline as well,” he says.
So what did he modify? “It’s built in the true spirit of a Time Attack car, so it’s a completely stock drivetrain and bodyshell but stretched out with Pikes Peak mods. The aero kit we’ve created comprises of a flat floor, a large rear wing and a sculpted front splitter, plus dive planes, front-wheel vents and side skirts. So it’s pretty comprehensive: it has more downforce than a GT3 car.”
Fat 18in Yokohama slick tyres, three-way a
