Motorsport News

VW BEATS PIKES PEAK RECORD

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WHERE: PIKES PEAK WHEN: JUNE 24 Five years ago Sebastien Loeb smashed the record for the Pikes Peak Internatio­nal Hillclimb. His benchmark of 8m13.878s came via 3.2 litres, two turbos and 875bhp. At the time, the word was, his time would never be beaten. Ever. How could it? How could anybody drive those 156 corners faster than Loeb’s average of 87mph?

Nobody could. Nobody did.

Until Romain Dumas arrived in Colorado Springs to drive Volkswagen Motorsport’s electrifie­d Norma prototype chassis up the 12.42-mile course. First announced in October last year, the word from Hannover throughout the developmen­t programme was about chasing Rhys Millen’s electric best of 9m07.222s for Pikes Peak. Nobody was willing to go anywhere near the record on the subject of besting Loeb.

Volkswagen kept its counsel and worked to level a near vertical learning curve. Right up until the final week of practice, there were issues and niggles. But, when it mattered most, everything came good. The clouds cleared on Sunday June 24 and Dumas sent Volkswagen’s I.D. R Pikes Peak up the hill. America’s Mountain smiled down and history was made. Two 250kw motors, a stack of aero and a ballsy Frenchman were enough to hit a history rewriting 7m57.148s. Job done.

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