Volkswagen Motorsport, and the team behind the ID R electric racer, have released details of the EV’s record lap around Nordschleife.
Two months ago, VW and the ID R completed the 20.8km (12.9 mile) track in a time of just 6:05.336 minutes at an average speed of 204.96km/h (127.36mph), while using just 24.7kWh of energy. This meant the ID R consumed only a quarter of the energy that a GT3 sports car would over the course of one lap.
In order to make the most of the energy stored in the li-ion batteries on board the ID R, driver Dumas had a manually activated DRS at his disposal, similar to the one used in Formula 1. While he was able to call on the maximum downforce generated by the 2m-plus rear wing, DRS reduced the aerodynamic drag in 23 spots on the circuit – such as when accelerating and on straights.
This way, the two electric engines on the front and rear axles were able to make particularly efficient use of the energy stored in the batteries. During the record-breaking lap, DRS was open for a total of 88.82 seconds – 24.3% of the driving time.
The ID R also generated 9.2% of the energy required for the record lap through brake energy regeneration. To generate the energy required to charge the batteries, VW Motorsport used a power unit that runs on glycerin, burning without harmful emissions or residues.
