Many modern racing cars and street cars may have several tiny HD camera attached to them to capture every detail of racing and driving. Did you know that the idea of attaching a camera to a race car dates back many decades? Pikes Peak International Hill Climb organization has released several historic archive video illustrating the rich history of the “Race to the Clouds”.
PPIHC will continue to release the videos on a regular basis leading up to the June 29th, 2014 race – the 92nd running of the second oldest race in the country. These videos can be accessed for free by signing up at PPIHC Online Video Portal until April 1st, 2014. There will be paid access after that.
Most of these historic have musical accompaniment and no natural sounds, but watching this footage of Paul Kleinschmidt manhandling his 1957 racer up the mountain all dirt road is surreal. The high video quality is noteworthy. Notice that the only safety equipment Paul has are a small helmet and goggles. There are no seat belts, roll cage, or Hans device. Just a man and his open-wheel race car speeding up Pikes Peak within inches of dramatic thousand feet drop-offs. This really make you appreciate the history of this race and motorsport in general.
Check out this TFLcar footage of more recent Pikes Peak races.
