Despite only three electric motorcycle entries this year (Zero alone fielded six production bikes last year) of 65 total, and seven automobiles in production and modified categories of 70 total entrants, upsets ensued on both two wheels and four at the 2014 Pikes Peak International Hill Climb. The three electric motorcycles all finished and did well. The Brutus V2 is not the most powerful electric motorcycle to ever make it up the Peak. Chip Yates’ 2011 ride had a 258-horsepower UQM motor and was probably more brutal than Brutus. But this year’s results, even with far less power, show that weight, balance and handling probably count in the mix, too. Yates managed a motorcycle record of 12.50 minutes in 2011, causing an inrush of competitive electric machines in the 2012 running. Fumio Nutahara, driving a Toyota EV P002, made a run of 10 minutes, 15 seconds with two 350 hp. axial flux motors providing the impetus. 2013 saw Lightning take …
Electrics Hit Their Stride at Pikes Peak Hill Climb
Since Chip Yates hit the fastest time ever for an electric motorcycle up Pikes Peak last year, then pulled the UQM motor from the bike and installed it in his Long-ESA (Electric Speed and Altitude) record-setting flying test vehicle this year, other Pikes Peak EVs have demonstrated the benefits of their high torque power units. Such performance shows the ready applicability of electric motors, with their uncompromised performance at altitude, as being great for hill climbers or aircraft. Toyota, Mitsubishi, and several private individuals entered the 2012 Pikes Peak International Hill Climb, three finishing in the top 15 of all competitors. Scheduled for July, the hill climb had to be set back to August because of massive wild fires in the area. David Herron reported in Torque News, “The top electric finisher, Fumio Nutahara, driving the Toyota Motorsports Group EV P002 electric race car. The EV P002 is built on a Radical race car chassis, and has pair of axial flux electric …