Hi DiRT fans! I’m John Barnes, Experienced Level Designer. On DiRT Rally, besides being responsible for building the Monte Carlo stages, I also got to build what is probably the most requested track in Codemasters’ history: Pikes Peak!
For those who don’t know, Pikes Peak is a track set in the stunning Rocky Mountains of Colorado.
It’s a steep, twisting, death-trap of a road, up a 14,115 foot tall mountain.
Each year, a Hillclimb event is run, playing host to such luminaries of motorsport as Rod Millen, Nobuhiro ‘Monster’ Tajima, Stig Blomqvist, and Sebastien Loeb, and numerous other new and veteran racers. They each push the limits of themselves and their machines to try to beat the mountain, developing ever more powerful engines and lighter vehicles. Many have tried to best it, many have failed. A rare few have earned the right to call themselves Champion of its treacherous curves.
Recently, some controversy has surrounded the decision to re-surface the road completely in tarmac, with some claiming that the essence of the race has been lost. Whatever your stance on this issue, you’ll be able to test which is best in the DiRT Rally Pikes Peak Update, as it features both a full tarmac and the half- gravel variant.
As far as Hillclimb events go, Pikes Peak is arguably the most famous, so it was a no-brainer to include it in DiRT Rally, now more accurately modelled than ever!
This article aims to give you a bit of an insight into the processes behind track research and construction here at Codies.