Why you should care about Pikes Peak

Why should you give a flying flute about this year's Pikes Peak hillclimb? Watch this video and you'll understand, in five short minutes, what's so incredible about America's second oldest motorsport event. And why we're trekking to the middle of Colorado to bring you coverage from a rather large mountain.

The award-winning short film documents Vatanen's record-breaking run at the 1988 event in his bewinged four-wheel drive, four-wheel steer Peugeot 405 Turbo 16 GR. He scythes through hairpins, he skims the edge of sheer cliffs at 14,000 feet, he even takes his hand off the wheel at full racing speed to block the sunshine - he probably owns a very large pair of testes.

Using film cameras inside, in front, underneath and above the car, cinematogropher Jean Louis Mourey adroitly distils all that's incredible about this 2.42-mile, 156 turn, 9383-foot ascent to the clouds, simultaneously creating one of the most compelling pieces of motorsport footage in the known universe.

As Vatanen says: "Pikes Peak is the absolute ultimate race. Fantastic in a car that accelerates from 0 to 200kph in less than ten seconds, weighs only 900 kilos and has 600bhp, four-wheel-drive and four-wheel-steering. It's the ultimate - nothing else comes close in the sporting aspect."