Volkswagen’s all-electric ID. R race car has successfully completed four days of tests in preparation for its record attempt on the Nürburgring-Nordschleife this summer. The ID. R was driven during a four-day test program last week at the Circuit de Almería in Andalucía, to test braking and energy recovery systems and assess tire performance.
The ID. R is the testbed for Volkswagen’s ID range of all-electric vehicles to be launched from 2020. Driver Romain Dumas will seek to break the current record for electric vehicles on the 20.8km (17.4 mile) racetrack in the Eifel this summer.
Volkswagen Motorsport’s director, Sven Smeets said, “After the shakedown in Oschersleben, the first test runs in Spain have also gone as planned.
“After its record outing on Pikes Peak, it’s really exciting now to witness the ID. R on a real racetrack. The optimization of an electric sportscar for the Nürburgring is a great new challenge for the whole team. We’re all really looking forward to demonstrating the strength of electric mobility once more, this time on the legendary Nordschleife.”
The focus of the four-day test program was to tweak control software for the mechanical braking and battery recuperation systems.
“On a secured racetrack such as the Nürburgring-Nordschleife, you can push much closer to the limit than somewhere like the hill-climb at Pikes Peak,” said Dumas. “I can brake harder and more aggressively. By adapting the software, the performance of the electric motors will be tuned for our new record attempt.”
Engineers are evaluating the results from the test runs and further optimizing the ID. R before the next test runs in southern Spain next week.
Dumas also had the opportunity to get to know the Potenza tires from new partner Bridgestone, which the ID. R used for the first time in Almería. “Working together with Bridgestone has gone really smoothly from the get-go,” said Smeets. “We have tested various versions of the Potenza Sport Tyres in order to find the optimal one for the record attempt on the Nordschleife.”
