Volkswagen ID.R has made motorsport history again by setting a new all-time record at the ‘Goodwood Festival of Speed’. Romain Dumas completed the 1.86-km track in the south of England in just 39.90 seconds. In doing so, the 500 kW (680 PS) electric race car broke the previous record, which had stood for 20 years, by 1.7 seconds. He also took victory in the Sunday Shootout. The previous record at the famous hillclimb was set in 1999 by Nick Heidfeld in a 780 PS McLaren- Mercedes MP4/13 with a combustion engine.
Volkswagen Motorsport had 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.
Technology partner Bridgestone, which was also involved in the record-breaking run in Goodwood in 1999, also supplied special tyres for the 1.86-km sprint. “We are proud to have been part of this project and the new record in Goodwood. To ensure the Volkswagen ID.R had the best tyres for this track, we developed a particularly soft variant of the Bridgestone Potenza slick,” said Mark Tejedor, Vice President OE Bridgestone EMEA. “We are obviously delighted that Bridgestone is still the tyre on the record-breaking car, even after more than 20 years.”
“I am very proud to have set the all-time record in Goodwood with the ID.R. 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,” said Romain Dumas, who had previously taken overall victory with the electric record at the same venue in 2018.
