Winged Car Wednesday – Suzuki Pikes Peak Monsters Part 1

For the next several weeks on Winged Car Wednesday we are going to focus on some of the Monsters that have attacked the Pikes Peak Hill Climb over the years. To start, we begin with the Suzuki Cultus Pikes Peak of 1992. After a few years of development, 1992 and 1993 had strong finishes at Pikes Peak for the twin-engine rocket and showed Suzuki’s potential.

The brand’s next vehicle, the Escudo Pikes Peak competed in 1994. It began life with two four-cylinders engine (one in the front and one in the back) before switching to a singular V6 in 1996. The ’96-’99 cars are the most famous of Suzuki’s Pikes Peak offerings thanks to Gran Turismo, but none of them ever won overall. Some of the latter cars also wore Grand Vitara badging for Pikes Peak to better associate the vehicle with a North American audience.

It is impossible to mention Suzuki and Pikes Peak without including ‘Monster’ Nobuhiro Tajima. He is the mad man who piloted these obscenely powerful winged monsters up the hill, right on very edge of control.