Nine-time world rally champion Sebastien Loeb has smashed the old record for the Pikes Peak hill climb with a time of 8m13.878s for the famous Colorado mountain.

That was enough to win the “Ultimate” class and establish a brand new record for the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb in Colorado, USA, the world’s most famous hill climb event which was run for the 91st time last weekend.

The Peugeot 208 T16 Pikes Peak completed the 12.4 mile course’s 156 turns to the mountai’s summit at an average speed of 145.7kph.

The car was equipped with specially designed MICHELIN tires (31/71-18) which enabled Sébastien Loeb to optimise the exceptional performance of his machine and focus 100 percent on his driving.

The inconsistent surface and humidity levels, as well as the 5000 foot altitude difference between the start and finish lines all contribute to this event’s unique difficulty and make conventional racing tires ill-adapted to the challenge.

MICHELIN developed special tires featuring technologies derived from those employed in a number of other motorsport disciplines. The Peugeot 208 T16 Pikes Peak car tips the scales at just 1929 pounds for a power output of 875hp.

“Congratulations to Sébastien Loeb and to Peugeot Sport on their exceptional achievement which put MICHELIN on top in the world?s most prestigious hill climb event,” said MICHELIN Motorsport Director Pascal Couason.

“The tires we developed for Sébastien Loeb’s Peugeot 208 T16 Pikes Peak were a concentrate of MICHELIN?s motorsport expertise.

“It was thanks to the MICHELIN Total Performance development strategy that we were able to successfully combine performance factors often believed to be irreconcilable into a single product, from very fast warm-up and an ability to withstand the non-stop sequence of hard acceleration, braking and abrupt load changes, to the delivery of consistent grip over a broad spectrum of temperatures and road surfaces.”