Volkswagen has torn the Pikes Peak record to shreds

Volkswagen has smashed the Pikes Peak hillclimb record. The electric ID R Pikes Peak – and its driver, Romain Dumas – beat not only the fastest time set by an EV, but the startling 8m13.878s put in by Sebastien Loeb in the wild Peugeot 208 T16 five years ago.

Dumas managed an eye-popping 7m57.148s up the Colorado course’s 12.4 miles and 156 corners. “We exceeded even our own high expectations with that result,” said Dumas.

“Since this week’s tests, we have known that it was possible to break the all-time record. For it to come off, everything had to come together perfectly – from the technology to the driver. And the weather had to play ball too. The I.D. R Pikes Peak is the most impressive car I have ever driven in competition.”

High praise indeed from a man who won Le Mans in a Porsche 919 Hybrid. What makes the ID R so special? Its 670bhp and 2.25sec 0-62mph time, perhaps. Plus that gigantic wing. Oh, and the whole car has been developed in just 250 days.

It wouldn’t have gone so fast without the help of Dumas, though, and he joins an esteemed list of people to sit atop the Pikes Peak records list, with Walter Rohrl, Ari Vatanen, Michele Mouton and – of course – nine-times World Rally champion Sebastien Loeb all able to claim the same.

Reckon it’s possible to go any faster?