On the 24th of June, Romain Dumas piloted the Volkswagen I.D. R electric race car to the top of the Pikes Peak Hill Climb in just 7:57.148 minutes, shattering the record for all-electric cars and creating history. Volkswagen and Dumas are now aiming at breaking records at the 2018 Goodwood Festival of Speed being held between 12 and 15 July.
Goodwood Festival of Speed hosted in West Sussex, the south of England is an iconic motorsport event and the largest of its type in the world. This will be the 25th edition of the Goodwood FOS and the event will see close to 200,000 visitors from all over the world. After the record-shattering debut at Pikes Peak, I.D. R Pikes Peak is making its competitive debut in Europe at Goodwood. French racing driver and Porsche factory driver Romain Dumas was genuinely surprised by the way the I.D. R took the Hill Climb and is looking forward to getting back behind the wheel of the I.D. R Pikes Peak at the Goodwood Festival of Speed.
Speaking about the future prospects, Volkswagen Motorsport Director, Sven Smeets said “It is a great honour for us to take part in the Goodwood Festival of Speed,”. “I still get goosebumps when I think about the magnificent success on Pikes Peak. However, that race is history now. We are looking ahead and looking forward to showing European fans the I.D. R Pikes Peak. Our brand has dedicated itself to electromobility, and we want to show everyone how emotional this topic can be before the first Volkswagen range with fully-electric drive is launched in 2020.”
The fastest electric car to go around Goodwood was a Lola-Drayson B12 69/EV piloted by Jonny Cocker back in 2013. The Lola-Drayson EV was timed at 47.34 seconds. The all-time overall record was set by former F1 driver Nick Heidfeld in 1999 behind the wheel of a McLaren-Mercedes MP4/13 F1 car. Nick darted through the 1.86 kilometre course in 41.6 seconds. Right after the Pikes Peak Hill Climb, the I.D. R was transported to Hannover, Europe where it has undergone further preparations before it heads to the south of England for the Goodwood FOS.
BONUS:
Apart from the menacingly quick I.D. R Pikes Peak electric car, Volkswagen will bring back the sensation of the 80’s, with the Twin-Golf Pikes Peak (1987) which will also race on the Goodwood Hill. The Twin-Golf Pikes Peak is essentially a bonkers Golf Mk2 with a not one, but two 1.8-litre, turbocharged four-cylinder engines each developing around 320bhp. Both the engines fed power to the front and rear wheel separately producing a total of 640bhp, making it an all-wheel drive, twin-engine monster Golf. The Twin-Golf will be piloted by Hans-Joachim “Strietzel” Stuck and Jochi Kleint. The I.D. R Pikes Peak features two electric engines, which generate a system performance of 500 kW (680 PS). As well as taking on the hill climb, the two cars will also be on display in the paddock, while the drivers will be available to meet fans and sign autographs.