Pikes Peak

Peugeot wanted to do a PR-stunt in the United States and embarked on a programme of conquering the famous Pikes Peak hillclimb. The French team could have won first time out, if it hadn't been for a broken turbo hose clamp, which handed victory to Walter Röhrl's Audi.

In 1988 Peugeot came back properly prepared, now with the shapelier 405 Turbo 16. Reigning World Rally Champion Juha Kankkunen had rejoined Peugeot for its non-WRC programme.

"The event was interrupted by a hailstorm for a while. The ground was totally covered by hailstones and we had to wait for it to melt away, but it left the upper parts of the climb quite muddy.

There was a certain element of psyching going on, whipped up by Juha Kankkunen's posse and trying to unsettle me - not that Juha was personally involved in it at all.

At 10 kilometres Juha was a couple of tenths quicker than me, but after that, as the route emerged from the forest and climbed over the treeline there came the muddy section and that's where I managed to edge ahead by 3 or 4 seconds. I only just eclipsed Walter Röhrl's record, but that was because of the conditions.

Pikes Peak is an absolute ultimate race! Fantastic in a car that accelerates from 0 to 200 kph in less than ten seconds, weighs only 900 kilos and has 600 bhp…. four-wheel-drive and four-wheel-steering. It's the ultimate - nothing else comes close in the sporting aspect! You're on your own in the car and there's just that one attempt to go the whole way. In practice you're only allowed to cover one third of the climb at a time and in qualifying it's half the distance. So that creates a special pressure and conquering it just gives a fantastic feeling. We should live our lives as passionately as we drive up Pikes Peak!"