Button and his partners prepare to storm Pikes Peak

Radford, a new project from Jenson Button and his business partners, is preparing to storm the famous Pikes Peak mountain in the US state of Colorado. Every year there are traditional high-speed hill climb competitions – Pikes Peak International Hill Climb, in which it is even prestigious to participate, not to mention win.

They have been held since 1916, and of course the conditions, the track surface, the format of the competition, the car classes have changed for over a hundred years, but the location has remained unchanged.

The length of the course is 12.42 miles, ie 19.99 km, the winding mountain course has 156 turns, the start is given at an altitude of almost 3 km above sea level and the finish is at about 4301 meters.

The Radford Pikes Peak Edition Type 62-2 appeared in the motoring press today, with Button’s partner and project leader Ant Anstead admitting: “It was hard to keep it a secret…”

However, no one would do this, because almost immediately both Jenson and Radford Motors on their pages in social networks not only shared the technical characteristics of the new car, but also devoted an intriguing video to it.

It is enough to specify only two parameters to understand that the car is really serious: with a weight of 861 kg, the engine develops 710 horsepower. And it will be driven by Tanner Faust, a famous American racer and stuntman, who played for the McLaren team last year in the Extreme E off-road electric series.

“I know this car is a real beast! he shared in an interview with TopGear. – There is practically nothing left of the street version of the Type 62-2. The commonality is only found in the design concept and some components, and everything else has been upgraded or replaced with specially developed versions of the parts found in the production sports car.”

If the latter has an aluminum chassis, then the novelty has a monocoque made entirely of composite materials, and the car has become 230 mm wider. She also has new front and rear subframes and different suspension geometry. Of course, the Pikes Peak Edition has an impressive aerodynamic body kit.

This “beast” is powered by the same 3.5-liter V6 turbo engine installed on a regular Radfod (if exclusive sports cars can generally be called “ordinary”), but its power comes out at 605 horsepower. raised by more than a hundred “horses”. This car accelerates to 100 km/h in 2.2 seconds.

There is another important difference from the road version: the only FIA-certified driver’s seat is located in the center of the cockpit. Tanner Faust takes it on June 25 to participate in the most interesting competition in the so-called Exhibition Class (Exhibition Class), the essence of which is to demonstrate the achievements of modern automotive technology.