VW electric racer sets Pikes Peak's overall record

[UserX]

It beat the previous Unlimited class record by 16 seconds, pretty cool.

[Strychnine]

16 seconds though? Daaaaaamn

[black50]

Damn, that battery pack must be cooled with liquid nitrogen

[yellowstang]

Probably still spits out emissions!
The sound would drive me insane too.

[Strychnine]

Probably still spits out emissions!
The sound would drive me insane too.

It gets worse. Apparently there's a rule on the course that any EV must have a siren to alert people and animals that it's coming... and this one was 120 dB.

FF to 3:40

For its reentry into Pikes Peak, Volkswagen built a prototype EV with 680 horsepower and 479 pound-feet of torque. A 43-kWh battery feeds juice to the all-wheel drive monster, with an electric motor on each axle that can propel it to 62 mph in 2.25 seconds. Total weight on this bad boy is less than 2,425 pounds, including driver Romain Dumas.

François-Xavier Demaison, Volkswagen Motorsport's technical director, didn't give specifics on the amount of downforce, only saying that it's the "size of a park bench" and that it creates more downforce than the total weight of the car.

[SS Junk]

Surprised it doesn't have a low frequency siren as well for the deaf.

[4bangen]

That thing is crazy fast. Though I miss the dirt days.

[Rick Modena]

That's bad ass, and I wasn't aware that they paved it all the way to the top. I was in Denver a couple of years back and it was still not paved all the way up.

[Big A]

I know it's fast, but those turns sure do look slow from up above. In car and at track level are a different story, maybe I spent too much time with slot cars back in the day.

[svauto-erotic855]

Damn, that battery pack must be cooled with liquid nitrogen

Some battery packs have to be heated for max short term output.

[UserX]

I know it's fast, but those turns sure do look slow from up above. In car and at track level are a different story, maybe I spent too much time with slot cars back in the day.

His average speed was over 90 mph, which is bookin' it for an uphill, winding course.

[EW]

The sound is horrible. Maybe they can get with Ford and figure out how to play fake engine sounds on the outside of the car.

[SS Junk]

I remember as a kid taking the cog railway to the top of pikes peak and the guide saying one of the unsers took a certain hairpin corner at over 60mph which i believe was some sort of record. track at that time was mostly dirt (if not all).

[scootro]

i bet it's faster without that electric horseshit

[Strychnine]

i bet it's faster without that electric horseshit

Riiiiiiiiiiight.

Some history of times up the hill:

2013 -Sebastein Loeb - 8878
2013 - Rhys Millen - 9192
2014 - Romain Dumas - 980
2015 - Rhys Millen - 922
2014 - Greg Miller - 918
2014 - Hiroshi Masuoka - 920
2015 - Paul Dallenbach - 9:36:49
2013 -Jean-Philippe Dayraut - 9:42:74

In an electric car in 2014 Nobuhiro Tajima ran 9:43:90 - where he beat his gasser time from 2013 (9:46:53) by 11 seconds
But yeah, VW somehow penalized themselves with the EV drivetrain and could have done EVEN BETTER with a gasser, but they shit the bed by having Romain Dumas run a 7:57:148

Don't be ignorant just because you don't like something.