Volkswagen breaks long-held McLaren F1 Goodwood record with ID. R
The Volkswagen ID. R electric prototype has broken the 20-year record set by a McLaren Formula 1 car for the fastest run up the Goodwood Festival of Speed hillclimb
The ID. R - driven by Le Mans winner Romain Dumas - broke the electric record at the same event last year and was just 1.45 seconds short of usurping Heidfeld's time in the MP4/13 in 1999 - pictured below.
The ID. R has been "optimised for sprint" according to VW technical director Francois-Xavier Demaison and, as a result, it ran with fewer batteries to save weight and completed its hillclimb on soft compound Bridgestone tyres.
Volkswagen's machine then set a time of 41.18 seconds to beat the previous record of 41.6s previously held by Heidfield and McLaren.
Sven Smeets, Volkswagen's motorsport director said it was "better" that the record run was completed on Friday, adding: "We didn't expect to do it so early, but I also don't wish it had happened on the last run [on Sunday] because [what] if something goes wrong?
"Now we can work tomorrow afternoon and Sunday afternoon a little bit for a different feeling. Still, apparently, there are some things we can improve to try and get under this 41 [second time]. We have to give ourselves a new target.
"This hillclimb is quite flat and not too bumpy so you can go more like a race car. The car is not so heavy as Pikes Peak.
"We had no message from Romain because he straight away threw his helmet off. His job is done!
Dumas added: "We improved a lot compared to last year, so that also is definitely positive and we worked a lot.
"It was definitely fun. It was a little bit stressful with the weather [forecast] for the rest of the weekend so we tried to push today, but tomorrow I hope we can go a little bit quicker.
Pushed on what time he thought the ID. R was capable of, Dumas added: "Now I have no pressure, so that's good.
"Goodwood is a tricky place, you never know what can happen.
"The track can be a little bit dirty with cars going in front of you and so on.
"Hopefully tomorrow I would like to go on a 40[s] would be nice.
"Which 40, low or high, I don't know. We will try our best and we will see."
The car has already broken records at Pikes Peak and at the Nurburgring before it arrived at Goodwood for a second attempt.
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