Fresh off of its record-breaking
lap at the Nürburgring Nordschleife, the Volkswagen ID R will return to the
Goodwood Festival of Speed next month. There, it plans to defend its hillclimb
record.
Last year, the ID R set a time of 43.86 seconds as it
scooted up Lord March's driveway, setting an electric-car record. It became the
quickest time in 15 years. Unlike the ID R at last year's Goodwood Festival of
Speed, this car has been prepped specifically for the hillclimb event. VW also
has another year of experience under its belt prepping the electric race car.
VW said the ID R at last year's event ran the same
configuration as it had when it set a new
Pikes Peak International Hillclimb record just three weeks earlier.
This time, the car has been tweaked and tuned for the Goodwood hillclimb, and
that means it should best the 43.86-second time.
"We have developed another evolutionary stage of the ID
R—a sprint version with smaller batteries, in order to further reduce
weight," said Technical Director at Volkswagen Motorsport, François-Xavier
Demaison. "We have also opted for a far more aggressive energy management
strategy for the short distance. You need very high output for a very short
time for the sprint in Goodwood."
The ID R's powertrain
configuration has been essential to breaking the handful of records it
has so far. At the Nürburgring, engineers had to carefully balance energy
recuperation and the need for plenty of power. The last thing VW wanted to see
was the race car run out of juice on the track. In fact, the ID R did not and
set a new electric-car lap record time of 6:05.33. That smashed the previous
electric car record of 6:45.9 held by the Nio EP9.
The Goodwood Festival of Speed runs July 4-7. Look for news
during the event that VW has bested its record and perhaps substantially.
by Sean Szymkowski
http://www.boscheuropean.com
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