Volkswagen’s mould-breaking ID R racer has already achieved a number of incredible things: the all-electric weapon debuted at the 2018 Pikes Peak hillclimb, whereupon it immediately smashed the Electric car record on its first go, with Romain Dumas behind the wheel. In fact, it knocked a full minute of the previous electric record and inadvertently managed to break the overall outright record as well! Then, at last year’s Goodwood Festival of Speed, Dumas again managed to drive up the hill faster than any other car over the weekend. He also pulled off an epic save, losing it in front of the house and bouncing across the grass before somehow missing the barriers, regaining control and powering back up the tarmac.
And now Volkswagen have shipped Dumas and the ID R to the Nürburgring, intent on beating the Nordschleife record for electric vehicles. The existing record of 6:45.9 was set by the also-incredible NIO EP9, China’s surprising electric hypercar, and VW’s engineers have had to muck about with the ID R a bit to alter its Pikes Peak-winning specs: given the higher average speeds, the car has had to be made more aerodynamic, part of which is a new F1-style DRS spoiler. After hundreds of hours of simulator testing, Volkswagen Motorsport have begun testing the car at the ’Ring for real – the record attempt will happen within the next few weeks.
Beating the record is pretty much a foregone conclusion, but by how much remains to be seen. We wouldn’t be surprised to see a time so quick that it’ll remain unbreakable for years. Could they even beat the ridiculous 5:19.55 lap set by the Porsche 919 Evo last year?
