Pikes Peak, 1988: Ari Vatanen Drove Into the Sun One-Handed

Pikes Peak, Colorado, 1988. Up on the gravel, the sun comes straight through the windshield. Ari Vatanen takes one hand off the wheel to shade his eyes and stays flat out with the other.

Three years earlier, nobody would have bet on him being here.

In 1985 he was driving for Peugeot in the world rally championship, and he had already won that year's Monte Carlo and Swedish rallies. Then, at Rally Argentina, he crashed at high speed. His seat broke. He came out with broken ribs and internal bleeding that nearly killed him.

The bones healed faster than the rest. After blood transfusions, he became convinced he had AIDS. He spent 18 months recovering, much of it fighting depression.

By the time he was ready, the old Group B rally cars were gone and Peugeot had left the world championship. So Peugeot put him in the desert. He won the Dakar in 1987, his first race back.

The next summer Peugeot took him to Colorado with a Peugeot 405 Turbo 16, with four-wheel drive and four-wheel steering. The road to the summit was still gravel. The record belonged to Walter Röhrl and Audi, set the year before.

Vatanen reaches the top in 10:47.22. It is a new record, less than a second under Röhrl's.

Peugeot had a film crew on the mountain. The short film that came out of it, one-handed moment and all, went on to win awards.

The record held until 1993.

What is the worst glare, dust or weather you ever had to drive through half blind, and how did you keep it on the road?