The Course and Driver for V8 vs. V6 Challenge

Jean Jennings: We are the actual start of our hill climb at Loveland pass. Female Speaker 2: Everybody gather over here for safety meeting. Jean Jennings: There are so many people in trucks and cameras. Male Speaker: Today we are going to be shooting several cars going up and down the canyon at speeds of 100+ miles an hour. Matt Stone: The right pilot for this project is critical. It has to be somebody that can get in a car that he has never driven before and get it right up to speed easily. Jean Jennings: Someone whom the world champion hill climb specialist my first pick was the only pick and it was Rod Millen. Rod Millen: You know maybe why Automobile chose me to do this was based on my career of racing on roads, not having lots of practice. They told me I am going to get three runs in each car; that's it, get it done. Jean Jennings: When we start three laps up and down. Rod Millen: In one car? Jean Jennings: In one car. Rod Millen: And you are going to get break so hot. The air is so thin here; breaks overheat so much easily on that altitude. Matt Stone: We are at an altitude to do something like this and you think even Denver is the mile high city. Well, we are well more than twice that elevation here, 11990 feet at the Loveland Pass. I think it was a perfect place to do this. Rod Millen: You know hill climb is it is man and machine against the terrain. There is always element of danger in any race car that you step into. Lot of corners here there is no guard rail. Male Speaker: Basically what we are doing is every 30 minutes we are letting vehicles pass through; along with the hazmat tankers. Rod Millen: Learning what the car can do as quickly as possible is really important and it takes me about one run to get used to them and then next run and sort of try to hang it out as fast as we could go. Jean Jennings: You know Rod is not just a hill climb specialist; he is a high speed champion. Matt Stone: He can draw a lot of information out of the car in a short period of time. So Rod Millen as I say, he is the man. Male Speaker 2: They are saying that we should release traffic. Jean Jennings: There is traffic backing up. Male Speaker: I understand -- is traffic backing up? Corey Weaver: A little bit nervous, probably a little bit of being at a high altitude and a little bit of a cautious optimism about the race today.