The Volkswagen ID.R's ten most amazing numbers

Just over eight months is nothing when you’re developing a car, but that’s how long it took VW to put the ID.R together, from the day top-brass gave it the go-ahead to the day it broke the Pikes Peak record. The core team of 30 engineers started with a blank sheet of paper, but of course they had to take a few shortcuts. The carbon tub, for example, is borrowed from a Norma hillclimb car.

The Porsche Taycan runs an 800 volt architecture, double the EV norm. The ID.R operates at 915 volts. Two electric motors, which split their power 40:60 front-to-rear, draw power from a 40kWh battery weighing roughly a quarter of the car’s mass (though the ID.R was fitted with a smaller battery for the Goodwood Festival of Speed in order to save weight).

You don’t just plug the ID.R in to any old socket. VW’s special power generator, which travels with the ID.R wherever it goes, runs on something called glycerin, a by-product from the production of bio-diesel that burns very cleanly indeed. A full charge is delivered in about 20 minutes, but of course it regens under braking too. 20 per cent of the energy it needed to reach the summit of Pikes Peak was harvested through the e-motors.

A Tesla Model S is almost 100bhp more powerful than the ID.R. More torque, too – 479lb ft plays 722lb ft. But the VW weighs just 1,100kg including the driver, less than half the Model S. With the smaller Goodwood battery the ID.R weighs less than a tonne.

That’s how quickly VW says the ID.R gets to 100mph. Not even Bloodhound is that fast, reaching the same speed in 4.5 seconds. An exceptionally quick road car, say a McLaren 720S, takes about 5.0 seconds. In the ID.R, by the time 5 seconds have elapsed you’re doing 124mph. The top speed is limited to around 170mph in ‘Ring spec, or 137mph in Pikes Peak trim.

That’s how long it took Romain Dumas to conquer the 12.4 miles and 156 corners of the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb back in 2018, the ID.R’s first competitive outing. Not just a record for an EV – beating Rhys Millen’s 2016 time by a full minute – but the all-time record. Way quicker than the 8:13.878 put in by Sebastien Loeb in the lighter, more powerful Peugeot 208 T16 five years before. Electric power was the key here – internal combustion-engined cars need air, and there isn’t much of that at altitude...

VW chose not to return to Pikes Peak in 2019. No need, its record was safe. Instead it set its sights on the Nurburgring, and the Nio EP9’s 6:45:90 lap-time. After making some choice modifications – such as new slipperier aero package and DRS to improve top speed – Romain Dumas clocked an astonishing 6:05:336 to claim the EV record, and second-fastest lap overall behind only the Porsche 919 Evo.

During the lap Dumas was subjected to cornering forces of around 3.5g. He averaged 127mph and maxed-out at 170mph. DRS was open for almost a quarter of the lap, which used 24.7kWh of energy.

In 1999 Nick Heidfeld clocked a 41.6-second run up the Goodwood hill in a McLaren MP4/13 F1 car, a time so fast Formula One cars were almost immediately banned from the annual timed shootouts. So it was two decades before his record was beaten. At last year’s FoS Dumas dipped under the 40-second mark in the ID.R, which had been fitted with a tiny lightweight battery and special Bridgestone tyres for the occasion.

Last September VW shipped the ID.R to China for a publicity stunt of fairly epic proportions. Before VW turned up there was no record for driving up China’s Tianmen Shan Big Gate Road. But now there is – Dumas drove the 6.776-mile, 99-turn mountain road in 7:38:585.

Ever since Pikes Peak VW has been evolving the ID.R, improving on a package it put together in just 250 days. They don’t just turn up at, say, the ‘Ring and set a time – much effort goes in to finding the optimal record-breaking setup.

And VW’s still committed to the project, because later in 2020 the ID.R is set to make an appearance at the Sonoma Speed Festival, where it will attempt to break a record set by Esteban Gutierrez in Nico Rosberg’s F1 Championship-winning Mercedes F1 car. The target is 1:15:40. Place your bets.