VW’s purpose-built electric ID R has broken not only the record for electric cars at Pikes Peak, but the overall record as well. VW has now released aerial video footage of the run.
Thanks to 680bhp and a serious aero package, Frenchman Romain Dumas stormed up the mountain in 7:57.148 minutes, beating the record Sébastien Loeb set in 2013 with the Peugeot 208 T16, by 16 seconds. With a track length of 12.42 miles (19.9km), that time makes for an average speed of 150km/h.
VW Motorsport says it developed the car in a relatively short time – just 250 days. This was an ambitious project, as the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb places some very unusual demands on the car and the driver.
Although the electric motors don’t lose power at altitude like an internal combustion engine, the thin air makes the aerodynamics more problematic, while changing weather conditions ask a lot from the driver and the suspension set-up.
