Building The 2018 Pikes Peak Hill Climb Racer At Deus Ex Machina

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Building The 2018 Pikes Peak Hill Climb Racer At Deus Ex Machina

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The man behind Deus Ex Machina, Michael Woolaway (Woolie), who heads the design direction at the company has set his eyes on the 2018 Pikes Peak International Hill Climb Challenge. With little over 11 months to go, the basic idea is to have no wild expectations and to keep it realistic. Michael wants to create a build that should last the race, reach the summit and come back home to celebrate a great achievement.

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No doubt, this Pikes Peak Effort by Deus Ex Machina isn’t going to be anything simple. Far from it in fact. This endeavour will test the team on all grounds, mental, physical, mechanical and even financial. Moreover, every single preparation to reach at the top of 2018 Pikes Peak challenge will also be needed to be carried out alongside the consistent customer work that Deus gets at their 1001 Venice Blvd workshop. The first challenge was to find a perfect base bike for the build and choosing a Ducati, a maker that has a rather great record at the Pikes Peak, was almost obvious. The base bike is a 2014 Ducati Hypermotard that made around 95bhp and weighed 197kg in all.

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The decrease in oxygen levels that riders encounter towards the top of the mountain plays a major factor in Deus Ex Machina setting up the motorcycle and their Pikes Peak Hill Climb efforts. This resulted in Woolie wanting to increase the power-to-weight numbers of his build. When he chose to use the 1198 RS engine that made a whopping 200bhp to do that, it was a rather overkill as anybody would like to think. However, racers and motorcyclists generally don’t pay heed to that sort of conservationism. Now, with the base bike and a rather monstrous engine sorted, Woolie and his team went ahead and shed another 40 kgs from the stock Hypermotard’s body. This was done by removing and replacing every possible thing on the stock bike with some carbon fibre love.

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This Pikes Peak Effort by Deus also gets an all new aluminium fuel cell and gorgeous carbon fibre wheels supplied by BST. Since it is to participate at the Pikes Peak Hill Climb, the whole build has been carried out with a strict adherence to the PPIHC rulebook. This translates into a bike build that weighs a feather light 158 kgs wet and that includes a full 9.5-Litre fuel tank! All this also means that the bike’s power-to-weight ratio now is around three times that of the stock Hypermotard.

Evidently, all this would help Woolie’s Pikes Peak Hill Climb monster to have enough power supply even at the straights at the top of the mountain that have thin air. As for air supply needed in those conditions, a custom ram air intake tat was designed by Tailor Made Racing specifically for the purpose. Then there are those side wings the build that take inspiration from a Formula 1 car. These winglets will help create much required downforce to keep the front tyre on the ground. An absolutely amazing addition none the less and it shows that the Pikes Peak Effort by Deus Ex Machina is a lot more than ‘no wild expectations’ as Woolie would like you to believe.

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Other important add on’s and replacements on this stunning one off custom machine by Deus Ex Machina include disabling traction control, a MicroTech ECU installed with new Racing wiring harness, a custom subframe made out of Chromolly alloy, handcrafted custom exhaust system and a Saddlemen custom seat.

With such level of dedication, engineering and precision already behind it, I for one am is really excited to know how this build by Deus Ex Machina develops further till the 2018 Pikes Peak International Hill Climb Challenge. It is not usual to see a custom build shop go all out to create a racing machine just for the purpose of racing it against some deeply backed factory entries. For more visit DEUS EX MACHINA

This is exciting, it surely is!

Source- ColumnM

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