When a Cummins-powered 1949 Ford F-1 broke the Pikes Peak diesel record in 2020, it began a sooty, whistle-blowing race up the world’s most dangerous mountain. This year, the record fell sharply when the damaged Ford was damaged in a crash, and his time was shaken by a driver who finished only 1.042 seconds behind him in 2020. The driver was Grégoire Blachon, who returned to the mountain this year with a prototype powered by a tri-turbo Volkswagen four-cylinder diesel that was built like no other engine in the world.
Blachon, an engineer by trade, said The Drive ran Pikes Peak for ten years now—and only The colors of Pikes Peak. They started in 2013 with the diesel Subaru Impreza, and returned in 2020 with the luxury VW Beetle. It was no ordinary Bug, either, as it featured a 2.0-liter VW TDI with twin turbos, mated to a seven-speed Porsche PDK transmission. It proved more powerful than the Beetle could handle by burning its brakes, slowing Blachon just enough for the ’49 Ford to take the diesel record by a fraction of a second.
This meant that any changes would have put Blachon in charge of the record, and the changes he brought. Although he couldn’t bare his teeth in 2021 or 2022 due to weather problems, Blachon appeared in 2023 in the form of the Radical SR, powered by a straight version of the Beetle’s diesel engine.
Output was increased to 440 horsepower thanks to the addition of a third turbo, designed in an extraordinary way to make it sound better. The configuration starts with a small 24-millimeter turbo, which produces 20 psi of boost at idle and max out at 45 psi. When its turbine reaches 240,000 rpm – that’s 4,000 revolutions per second – its variable geometry vanes open, and direct its waste to the second turbo, 45-mm. It has already been interrupted by this point, and when it hits 165,000 rpm it repeats the process of feeding the third snail, 71-mm. This all adds up to a very high 70 psi.
That one also has to give up too much pressure, because Pikes Peak’s low air pressure means blowing the turbo and going too fast is a real risk. That’s why Blachon equipped the engine with turbo speed sensors, cylinder pressure sensors, gas temperature monitoring, and more to prevent this sensitive engine from blowing itself up. Apparently this is the first of its kind, and Blachon says it was impressed with the engine technology of Audi Motorsport who can claim some credit for the diesel dominance at Le Mans.
“Throttle response is amazing,” Blachon told me, adding that the engine sounds like a plane taking off. “There are no bumps at all, the power is constant.”
“3,600 rpm to 5,200 rpm is the electronic curve between torque crossover and power. So, any time you decide to put it down – no matter what – the car will come out.”
For this reason, Blachon means that the 1,640-pound Radical can accelerate from zero to 100 mph in just 5.8 seconds. Apparently, it will run eight miles in 6.1 seconds at 118 mph.
With a chassis that could run with its engine, Blachon achieved a glorious time in 2023, posting 10:25.071. Theoretically, it’s more than a minute faster than his predecessor, and a historic diesel. It’s also getting very close to the 10-minute barrier that was thought to be unbreakable when Pikes Peak was a mixed race.
But he can’t be too comfortable at the top, because he wasn’t the only diesel to break the record this year. The Power Stroke-modified Nissan GT-R also passed the mark, with a time of 11:06.535—and its builders told us they thought they could easily get another 35 seconds. This will put them very far from Blachon’s record if they don’t continue to improve.
And if they don’t, someone else eventually will. Pikes Peak is the ultimate international race in the world where the sky is the limit, where you can run everything and four wheels—so there’s no telling what color the next record-breaker will take.
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