By Jeff Glucker
Volkswagen took its ID.R electric race car to the Nürburgring. Driver Romain Dumas hopped behind the wheel and proceeded to silently set the place on fire. The previous EV record, held by Nio and its EP9, was 6:45.9.
The new record? 6:05.3!
Over the course of the lap, Dumas averaged 128.6 miles per hour. He crushed this run. It’s one hell of an achievement for any car, not just an electric one.
If VW wants to go for the full glory though, it needs to compete against sibling Porsche. The German sports car (and false coupe) maker ran its 919 Evo race car at the ‘Ring. The lap time for that car was an insane 5:19.5.
Congrats to VW and Dumas for this amazing feat of engineering and driving.
I wonder how much battery charge was left at the end of the lap?
Also, nearly as fast as a 1983 Porsche! (yes, I know…)
Almost none: It was doing single-lap runs (rather than warm up/fast lap/warm down) and some reports have suggested it was already de-rating in the closing stages and only had capacity for a few hundred metres at the end.
But someone posting on Pistonheads asked the question: “Do you really think that all the other cars that have recently set ‘Ring records have done it with a tank of petrol?” Anyone going for a category record is going to make sure that they are carrying the minimum fuel for the few laps they need to drive.
Possibly not a full tank, but I doubt they would be cutting it that fine, and doubt another 10-20kg of fuel would make a measurable difference. If doing a full lap time (rather than bridge to gantry) I wonder if they would have to do another lap to get back to the pits or is there another entry past the finish line?
I’m not sure how the track in/out layout varies for the manufacturer record laps vs. the tourist days. I’d assumed they had a shortcut back to pit — but I may be wrong.
As to how finely they trim the fuel? For a Formula 1 pole lap Ferrari or Mercedes will (usually) set the fuel load down to the last 100 grammes; I’d have expected Ferrari or Mercedes to be thinking at least down to the kilo/litre for a competitive lap of the ‘Ring.
In F1 they are chasing every last thousandth of a second. Not saying these record attempts aren’t, but the margins between success and failure over quite old records aren’t so fine.
I would propose that if the 919 had enough fuel for 3 laps of the Ring it still would have easily set the record, maybe a few seconds slower?
Difference is you don’t spend at least an hour putting more petrol in or swapping out an entire fuel tank.
Difference is you don’t spend at least an hour putting more petrol in or swapping out an entire fuel tank.
Absolutely fair to point out that difference. For the ID:R they actually had two cars at the ‘Ring so that Dumas could get another lap in whilst the first recharged!
Also — if you are referring to Steffan Bellof’s 1983 record; the ID:R beat it by 6 seconds.
Obviously much of that is due to advances in tyre, suspension, driveline tech and aero analysis. But it is still a great step forward for EV-tech to beat a record that stood for 35 years. Also — unlike Pikes Peak, where ICE-powered cars run out of power as the altitude increases — there is nothing about the ‘Ring that favours an electric car over ICE.
D’oh!