Electrifying Dumas breaks Goodwood Hill record

July 8, 2019 0 Comments

Romain Dumas broke the Goodwood Festival of Speed Hillclimb record that had stood for 20 years yesterday – which was also the first time an electric race car had beaten a record set by a Formula 1 car!

Driving the 500-kW (680-PS) electric Volkswagen ID.R, the Frenchman completed the 1.1557 mile course in just 39.9 seconds – breaking the previous record, set by Nick Heidfeld driving a McLaren-Mercedes MP4/13 in 1999, by 1.7 seconds.

Dumas also took victory in the FOS Sunday Shootout.

“I am very proud to have set the all-time record in Goodwood with the ID.R,” said Dumas. “The short hillclimb is a very special challenge. Because the track is so short, I could not afford to make even the slightest mistake, and every aspect of the fine-tuning of the ID.R had to be perfect. That was particularly challenging, as we were not able to test on the route beforehand.”

“In setting the new all-time record at the Goodwood Festival of Speed, the ID.R has once again shown that Volkswagen’s electric powertrain can outperform even the most powerful conventional powertrains,” added Volkswagen Motorsport Director Sven Smeets. “Romain Dumas exploited the full potential of the ID.R on this short but tricky track. After the victory on Pikes Peak and the e-record on the Nürburgring-Nordschleife, he has now achieved another milestone for electromobility. It was a strong performance from our whole team, which only had a very short time, in which to get a lightweight variant of the ID.R up and running for the Festival of Speed.”

Volkswagen Motorsport had systematically modified the ID.R for its outing at the Goodwood Festival of Speed. Among other things, the latest evolution of the electric race car was lighter than when it set the records on Pikes Peak and at the Nürburgring.

“We used a smaller battery than at the Nürburgring and optimised the power output. As such, the new sprint version of the ID.R weighs less than 1,000 kilograms, with the driver on board,” said François-Xavier Demaison, Technical Director at Volkswagen Motorsport. The ID.R also completed its record-breaking run without the Drag Reduction System (DRS) that was designed for the high-speed sections of the Nürburgring, as the characteristic of the track in Goodwood made this superfluous.

Romain Dumas wears a Stilo ST5 F Zero 8860 helmet.