Volkswagen will bring the ID R electric race car to this week’s 2018 Goodwood Festival of Speed in an attempt to blitz the hill and set a new record for electric cars.
Romain Dumas will once again don his lightweight race suit and climb into the cockpit of the ID R.
“I am really looking forward to getting back behind the wheel of the ID R Pikes Peak at the Goodwood Festival of Speed,” Dumas said in a statement. “The ID R Pikes Peak may still be very young, but the record-breaking run on Pikes Peak has already made it a ‘living legend.’”
Although this run is far shorter than the 12.4 miles the French racer faced down in Colorado, the task ahead of him is still daunting. Right now, the all-time top run at the Goodwood Festival of Speed stands at just 41.6 seconds. It was set back in 1999 by Nick Heidfeld, and he used a McLaren-Mercedes MP4/13 Formula 1 race car to do so.
There’s an electric record of 47.34 seconds, and that was set in 2013 by Jonny Cocker who drove a Lola-Drayson B12 69/EV.
On a hillclimb like Goodwood, the ID R has a number of things working in its favor. This is an extremely high downforce car, which means it should stick tight through all of the corners. Further, with that instant torque it can get on the power immediately after ripping through these corners. Finally, if Volkswagen was holding back the power at all during the Pikes Peak run as a move to preserve battery power, the team doesn’t have to worry about that here. This will be a full uncorked ID R, and you can bet that Dumas is ready for the task at hand.
Volkswagen is also bringing its too-cool twin-engined Golf to Goodwood as well. All eyes will certainly be on the ID R, but don’t overlook this delightful 640-horsepower monstrosity.
This is shaping up to be one of the greatest Festival of Speed events of all time. We could be prepped for a showdown of epic proportions because Porsche should be there as well with its 919 Evo. At the end of the day, the Volkswagen Group is going to turn some heads and one of those two might just be the all-time Goodwood hill climb champ.
