Faster than Formula 1: New record for the Volkswagen ID.R at Goodwood

The ID.R on its way to smashing the existing record by 1.7 seconds ..

The first electric race car to beat Formula 1: The 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-kilometre 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 574-KW (780-PS) McLaren-Mercedes MP4/13 with a combustion engine.

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.

Approximately 180,000 visitors flocked to the ‘Goodwood Festival of Speed’ over the course of the weekend. As well as the on-track action, Volkswagen also offered them a fascinating glimpse of the future of electromobility. The brand presented a first public foretaste of the ID.31, which in 2020 will be the first model in the new ID. family to hit the market. Not only that, but Volkswagen also provided an insight into more future variants of the fully-electric series, in the form of the ID. BUZZ and ID. VIZZION studies.