Acura has announced it will be returning again to the Broadmoor Pikes Peak International Hill Climb in force on June 24. This will mark Acura’s seventh consecutive year competing at the Peak, and the fourth in a row that an Acura has been selected to be the official pace car and support vehicle, with a 2019 RDX A-Spec and 2018 MDX, filling the roles respectively.
Four production-based Acura race cars will take part in the event, including a Modified Acura RDX with larger turbo and supercharger producing 350-horsepower participating in the Exhibition class, a production-based Acura NSX competing in Time Attack 1 Class, a TLX GT piloted by Peter Cunningham in Open Class, and a turbocharged, 500-horsepower 2018 TLX A-Spec to compete in Open Class as well.
Cunningham, who achieved a commanding win in Open Class last year, returns to the Peak in RealTime Racing’s (RTR) TLX GT featuring his beloved Forgeline wheels. Acura R&D engineer James Robinson will return following his record setting run for hybrids last year, behind the wheel of the NSX in Time Attack 1 Class.
Acura R&D engineer and brother to James, Nick Robinson, will also return to the climb in the 2018 TLX A-Spec, and Jordan Guitar will make his Pikes Peak debut in the all new 2019 Acura RDX, in Exhibition Class.
The trail at Pikes Peak rises from 9,320 feet to 14,115 feet, and has 156 corners in a 12.42 mile race. As the racers get closer to the summit, the thinning air robs the internal combustion engines of the competing cars by as much as 30 percent, while the drivers themselves feel a decline in physical strength. This presents an enormous challenge, as both the vehicles and the drivers must be in superior condition to finish the race, let alone win.Â
See the Broadmoor Pikes Peak International Hill Climb for more information.