Goodwood: ID.R takes the hill record 🎥
FASTER THAN FORMULA 1 At the Mini Hill Climb at the Goodwood Festival of Speed, Romain Dumas in the Volkswagen ID.R set an absolute record. Nick Heidfeld in the McLaren F1 had held it since 1999. You can think what you like about e-mobility in general and electric racing in particular, but the speed of the ID.R, like the [...]
You can think what you like about e-mobility in general and electric racing in particular, but the speed of the ID.R, as shown in the video of the record-breaking drive at Goodwood, is impressive.
Romain Dumas covered the 1.86-kilometer race track at Goodwood Park in 39.90 seconds. The 500 kW (680 hp) electric race car thus improved the 20-year best time by 1.7 seconds. In 1999, Nick Heidfeld had set the previous record in the around 780-hp McLaren-Mercedes MP4/13 with V10 combustion engine.
Third record at historic site
The Swiss-by-choice and the Volkswagen Motorsport team thus pinned another record to their banners after winning the day in the first time under eight minutes at the 2018 Pikes Peak International Hill Climb (USA) and the fastest lap by an electric vehicle on the Nürburgring-Nordschleife a month ago.
Romain Dumas: "I'm proud of that now, too. That was a very special challenge. Because the track is so short, I couldn't afford the slightest driving mistake, and every detail had to fit when fine-tuning the ID.R, too. That was particularly demanding because we couldn't test on the track beforehand."
The record drive of Nick Heidfeld with the Formula 1 racing car lying rather unsteadily on the road is shown in the following video:
Sprint version of the ID.R for attack on Formula 1 record
Volkswagen Motorsport had specifically modified the ID.R for this occasion. Compared with the records at Pikes Peak and the Nürburgring, the latest evolution version of the electric race car was distinguished by its lower weight (less than 1,000 kilograms including the driver), among other things.
In addition, technology partner Bridgestone, already supplier to McLaren's Goodwood record drive in 1999, provided a particularly soft version of the Bridgestone Potenza slick.
Foretaste of the ID. family
The Goodwood Festival of Speed attracted a total of around 180,000 visitors over the weekend. Volkswagen offered them an exciting glimpse into the future of electric mobility, not only on the race track.
The brand gave a public preview of the ID.31, which will be the first model in the new ID. Family to be launched on the market. With the studies ID. BUZZ and ID. VIZZION, Volkswagen also provided a preview of further upcoming variants of the all-electric series.
