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BMW i4's Road to Pikes Peak Has Entered a New Phase

BMW i4's Road to Pikes Peak Has Entered a New Phase 33 photos
Photo: Flavius Croitoriu
BMW i4's Road to Pikes Peak Has Entered a New PhaseBMW i4's Road to Pikes Peak Has Entered a New PhaseBMW i4's Road to Pikes Peak Has Entered a New PhaseBMW i4's Road to Pikes Peak Has Entered a New PhaseBMW i4's Road to Pikes Peak Has Entered a New PhaseBMW i4's Road to Pikes Peak Has Entered a New PhaseBMW i4's Road to Pikes Peak Has Entered a New PhaseBMW i4's Road to Pikes Peak Has Entered a New PhaseBMW i4's Road to Pikes Peak Has Entered a New PhaseBMW i4's Road to Pikes Peak Has Entered a New PhaseBMW i4's Road to Pikes Peak Has Entered a New PhaseBMW i4's Road to Pikes Peak Has Entered a New PhaseBMW i4's Road to Pikes Peak Has Entered a New PhaseBMW i4's Road to Pikes Peak Has Entered a New PhaseBMW i4's Road to Pikes Peak Has Entered a New PhaseBMW i4's Road to Pikes Peak Has Entered a New PhaseBMW i4's Road to Pikes Peak Has Entered a New PhaseBMW i4's Road to Pikes Peak Has Entered a New PhaseBMW i4's Road to Pikes Peak Has Entered a New PhaseBMW i4's Road to Pikes Peak Has Entered a New PhaseBMW i4's Road to Pikes Peak Has Entered a New PhaseBMW i4's Road to Pikes Peak Has Entered a New PhaseBMW i4's Road to Pikes Peak Has Entered a New PhaseBMW i4's Road to Pikes Peak Has Entered a New PhaseBMW i4's Road to Pikes Peak Has Entered a New PhaseBMW i4's Road to Pikes Peak Has Entered a New PhaseBMW i4's Road to Pikes Peak Has Entered a New PhaseBMW i4's Road to Pikes Peak Has Entered a New PhaseBMW i4's Road to Pikes Peak Has Entered a New PhaseBMW i4's Road to Pikes Peak Has Entered a New PhaseBMW i4's Road to Pikes Peak Has Entered a New PhaseBMW i4's Road to Pikes Peak Has Entered a New Phase
 As a kid, skateboarding felt like an expensive sport to be a part of. Anyone going for it would break multiple boards yearly while also thrashing their shoes.
It's more affordable today, but I now have a job to support it if I want to. My problem is that I've left skateboarding behind for motorsports. And racing in 2024 feels more prohibitive than riding a board at the start of the 21st century.

I noticed a racing program for young talents from a big European car manufacturer the other day. To be eligible to win close to $300,000 in various tuition programs, you had to go through their one-make series and rise to the top.

How do you become a millionaire in motorsports?

I quickly tried to learn about the costs and was excited when I noticed a full year of racing would cost about $30,000. But after some more reading, I discovered those were just the participation fees and did not include the car, tires, fuel, the team, or anything else. I closed the window and sighed. I know I have mentioned this joke before, but here it goes again:

"How do you become a millionaire in motorsports? By starting as a billionaire!" Most enthusiast drivers can't even dream about securing the funds for a full racing season. But sometimes, a single race can be equally as financially exhausting. You can't just drive to Pikes Peak and expect to conquer the mountain in a road-going vehicle. And you can't just use any normal race car to achieve that result.

There's a reason why the event in Colorado has reached legendary status over the past 100+ years since its debut. It puts both man and machine to the test, and only a few will emerge victoriously. Between 2014 and 2024, only four people won the Race to the Clouds: Romain Dumas (four times), Robin Shute (four times), Rhys Millen (2015), and Clint Vahsholtz (2020).

BMW i4's Road to Pikes Peak Has Entered a New Phase
Photo: BMW/Ciprian Mihai
In recent years, we have started seeing a shift towards electric-powered race cars for Pikes Peak. Rhys Millen became King of the Hill with the eO PP03 in 2015, and Romain Dumas has two EV victories under his belt. The most recent one was in the 2024 Ford F-150 Lightning SuperTruck. But the record stands at 7:57.148 with the French driver piloting the Volkswagen I.D. R.

The Race to the Clouds

That record stands since 2018, and it will likely take the involvement of a big manufacturer to break it. EVs have an advantage going uphill compared to their ICE-powered competitors, as the latter will run out of air by the time they reach the 4,115' (4,302m) summit. While I'm not a fan of electrification for road-going vehicles, that doesn't mean I can't appreciate what they offer. Frankly, the Porsche Taycan is one of the most amazing cars I have ever driven, and I would love one as a daily.

But I wouldn't mind having something like a Renault Zoe for driving around town, either. EVs have their place in the world; I'm just against them completely replacing our beloved ICE-powered machines. Pikes Peak is the only place I'd still enjoy seeing an EV at work. I haven't followed Formula E or MotoE in months now, but going up the hill seems to be a different story. In March, I interviewed a former helicopter-engineer turned racecar driver/builder, Horia Platona. He had succeeded nationally with his first EV project: the Mini "Racing MIMI" Cooper.

But he had his eyes set on a bigger trophy: Pikes Peak. He could have built a Tesla for his second project but opted for a BMW i4. He and his team had to fabricate every part for the project, as there are no off-the-shelf parts for a race-spec BMW i4. Horia was still hoping he could miraculously find a way to reach Pikes Peak in 2024, and he probably would have if he had the budget for it. But without a quarter of a million dollars in his back pocket, the process was much slower than initially anticipated.

BMW i4's Road to Pikes Peak Has Entered a New Phase
Photo: Flavius Croitoriu
I was sad that the team couldn't make the Colorado event deadline. But I was happy to receive an official invite for the car's debut at Tiriac's Auto Collection in August. It happened a few days before my Transfagarasan drive with the 911 Turbos, and one of my colleagues reported on the event soon after. But I didn't just want to show you a few photos of the nearly-finished car with a stunning background of Ferraris and Porsches behind it. I tried to gather more information from the upcoming real-world tests with it and have Horia's feedback on the process.

We went through mayhem before the launch

But first, I wanted to hear his thoughts on the car's official presentation: "We went through mayhem before the launch. We worked around the clock for a month and a half to prepare it. I'm talking about sleepless nights here. There was always some small part that we had to fabricate from scratch, which took up a lot of time. We even wrapped the car in-house, and 95% of the work was done the same. I was so tired at the reveal that I couldn't tell if I was nervous."

"It was emotional to see the labor of our work after more than a year of striving to get it to this point." But it was just a small step in a much longer journey, as the car still needed some testing in the real world outside of the garage. "We returned it to the shop to prepare it for its first hillclimb event. We had one session at the racetrack, gathering as much data as possible. Our data logger gathered over 5 GB of info at the Super Rally event downtown."

BMW i4's Road to Pikes Peak Has Entered a New Phase
Photo: Flavius Croitoriu
"I'm not trying to push the car yet; we're analyzing the data and setting everything up for the main event. The first Hillclimb race was eye-opening! It was my first time driving it in relatively similar conditions to Pikes Peak, and we learned a lot from that experience. We still need to improve the cooling part. And I also need to adjust my driving style. I'm used to much lighter race cars, and this weighs almost 4,400 lbs (2,000 kg). My main concern is still related to the budget."

"Otherwise, I have the utmost confidence in what we've built. But switching between daily jobs and building a race car at this level is hard. If we could work on it without restrictions, we'd develop a major update every two weeks. We are focusing on developing the batteries and cooling, and with some luck, we can put it to the test in Colorado next year."

I've become quite fond of "Elsa" and the team. And they deserve a shot at the mountain in 2025 after all the hard work. It might be tough for them to finish in less than 10 minutes, but less than 11 sounds feasible. If the 2024 Rivian R1T can do it in 10:53, this i4 can do better.
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About the author: Dragos Chitulescu
Dragos Chitulescu profile photo

The things Dragos enjoys the most in life are, in no particular order: cars, motorcycles, diecast cars, and drifting. He's seen (and driven) many vehicles since he started his writing career back in 2009, but his garage currently houses a 1991 Mazda RX-7 FC3S Turbo II and a 1999 Suzuki SV650-S.
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