Volkswagen ID.R Breaks 20-Year-Old Goodwood Festival of Speed Hillclimb Record

Another day with the record-breaking Volkswagen ID.R means another record gets broken--this time, it's the 20-year-old Goodwood Festival of Speed Hillclimb Record.

Driven once more by two-time Le Mans 24 Hours-winner Romain Dumas, the Goodwood record is the third landmark for the all-electric machine. The ID.R established a new electric vehicle lap record around the famous Nürburgring Nordschleife, with a time of 06:05.33 minutes in June, to add to its outright record on the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb in Colorado, USA, (07.57.15 minutes) set in June 2018. With a further year of development behind it, the all-electric ID.R produces 500kW (670bhp) and 650Nm of torque, and weighs less than 1,100kg with the driver on board. The remarkable Volkswagen can accelerate from 0-100 kph in 2.25 seconds, topping out at 168 mph (270 kph). "The Goodwood Festival of Speed Hillclimb is one of the most iconic Hillclimbs in the world," said Volkswagen Motorsport Director Sven Smeets. "The track is so narrow and difficult to master, with zero room for error. Dumas and the whole Volkswagen team performed flawlessly to set the record." "A change is taking place in the field of production vehicles and in motorsport. Electric cars are becoming increasingly more powerful and it’s great to see them now rivalling combustion engines on track. To get an idea of how far we’ve developed the car, in 2018 we ran a 00:43.86 – this year we were almost three seconds faster," Smeets added. In 1999, McLaren set the fastest time on the 1.87-kilometer Goodwood Hillclimb with its MP4/13 F1 car, driven by then-F1 driver Nick Heidfeld in a time of 00:41:60. It has taken 20 years for the record to be broken, with the ID. R beating its winning 2018 time of 00:43:86 to break the outright record this year.