The Pike’s Peak International Hillclimb is an amazing race with an amazing history since its start in 1916. Many people know of the race primarily because of one of the most extreme cars to ever run it, Nobuhiro “Monster” Tajima’s Suzuki Escudo. This car ran in the unlimited class where the only real rule is that the car must pass tech inspection. The Open class also has very few regulations, requiring only that a car keep a relatively stock appearance. This unregulated environment has caught my attention as well as much of Japan’s, especially in the ’80s and ’90s. It is fitting, then, that this landmark is a big part of JDM history. One of the best racing films of all time, Climb Dance, was filmed at this race.

Recently, Rhys Millen has done a great job bringing JDM to some domestic cars for Pontiac’s drift program and I feel that his cars have been good for the sport. But Rhys isn’t the first Millen to flirt with JDM. Rhys father, Rod, built an FC RX-7 for Pike’s Peak in 1990. Building on his previous successes in rally with an AWD 13b-powered RX-7, Rod decided to use a 20b engine for the race to the clouds. He ended up winning the class and, in my opinion, paving the way for cars like JUN’s crazy AWD 350Z.

As far as I can tell, RE Amemiya bought the car after the race and haven’t done much with it for a while as is evident by the picture below. Bring the car back guys! It was amazing.