Josh/AWE

First, feast your ears on this monster.

Well, it happened. We built a car out of street performance parts, entered it in one of the most grueling (and dangerous) races in the country, and did pretty great.

View from the “Cow Pasture” - about ¾ of the way up.


The asphalt snakes its way through the trees at the beginning of the course.


We drove the course ourselves in the GPS/AWE Tuning S5 (which donned the pre-production S5 Track Edition Exhaust). We can tell you, this is no street course. There are more opportunities to go off a cliff than there are to go into a ditch.

When we designed our front plate graphic, we didn’t really think it’d mean “Watch Out you might drive off a cliff.”


Pastrana and the Chopper - gives a good idea of one of the many opportunities to go cliff diving.


Another shot of the chopper from the vintage portion of the race.


Breathtaking views.


The Results.

Getting right to it, our man Lagemann (Open Class) placed second in class, and fourth overall with a time of 6:40.09, besting his previous runs by :17.39. Climb to the Clouds officials state this was the largest field ever.

Ramana getting in the zone.


Prepping mentally.



Let’s put this in perspective. Here's who beat us.

1) David Higgins with co-driver Craig Drew. Set the fastest run EVER on the mountain, with 6:09.09. Factory Subaru.



2) Travis Pastrana with co-driver Chrissie Beavis. I mean, it’s Travis Pastrana. 6:12.29.



3) The Super Chicken! Admittedly, we wanted to beat the car with this name, but it’s a lightweight purpose built hill climb car and it simply wasn’t going to happen. Tingaud is an incredible driver to boot, we were honored to be in the presence of the chicken. At least it’s an Audi, sort of. 6:22.70.



Full results for Sunday’s racing can be found HERE.


The Race

First, the puncture...

As a member of the “press,” you get shuttled up the mountain, and left there all day. You can’t come down save for a short break in the middle, because there’s a one-way race happening toward you. We were essentially cut off from civilization. So when Ramana never made it to our spot halfway up the mountain, we imagined the worst.

Luckily, as we found out, it was just a puncture from a rock. We blame the rock. In any case, Yokohama saved the day, but that left us with just one run to make our point that you can Race Sunday and Commute Monday.



Ramana and Marc chatting it up prior to the final run.


Alex Grabau, #CommuteMonday Team Member.


Donning new Yokohama shoes, getting teed up for launch, Ramana was cool and collected. Here’s the initial squat.



Cragway

And off we go. One of the best spots to shoot is called “Cragway” - the dirt section of the track.


Special thanks to Kris Hansen from Audiworld for this one.


Headed towards the clouds.


All eyes on #CommuteMonday.


Higgins setting a world record.


Playing chicken.


Past the Cragway is a small press area where we found ourselves stranded, so we took advantage, and got this one on Saturday during practice. Note Ramana catching up to the competitor ahead of him (that’s not supposed to happen).


Leaping Subarus!


Chickens do fly.


Cow Pasture

Even further up, there’s a pretty incredible vantage point called the “Cow Pasture.” Here’s some of the footage from that section.

Rollin’ coal.


The Electric Ride.


Opel up.


In the end, the fact that we were able to fare well with products that anyone can attain off the shelf vouches for the concept. The car ran incredibly well and the preparation was flawless.


Quick shout out to all those involved:

The AWE Tuning engineering and fabrication teams - the minds behind the AWE Tuning Track Edition Exhaust, with Chrome Silver 90mm Tips, AWE Tuning Non-Resonated Downpipe, AWE Tuning ColdFront Heat Exchanger, AWE Tuning ColdFront Reservoir, AWE Tuning ColdFront Protection Screen, AWE Tuning ColdFront Coolant Pump, AWE Tuning 3.0T S-FLO Intake, Carbon Kit, and the AWE Tuning Stage 2 Pulley Kit with GIAC Stage 2 Performance Software that were installed on the #CommuteMonday S4.

And the great people at Ohlins Dampers, H&R Special Springs, Pagid, Audi Genuine Parts, Yokohama Tire, SPC, and GIAC.

And if you live in the Boston area, you absolutely must go to German Performance Service. They are incredible people, super knowledgeable and can clearly make a streetcar do some special things.

As Ramana stated, “I’d call this a resounding success”


We’re working on a full video to document the race… so stay tuned for that, and all of the images, including product links, can be found on the special Climb to the Clouds section of AWE Tuning.

Thanks for reading!

Josh/AWE

A video appetizer.

Hi all,

We are assembling all of the incredible footage from our sprint up Mt. Washington. In the meantime, here’s a little taste of what’s to come.


Still hungry? Check out #CommuteMonday chapter two, Road to the Run Offs at Laguna Seca!