VWs Pikes Peaks EV

[Scorpaguy]

I believe we noodle-armed, tea-sipping, tofu-eating EV mama's boys have thrown down the gauntlet. Petrolheads...your move.

[strad]

World Record for VW

[djos]

I believe we noodle-armed, tea-sipping, tofu-eating EV mama's boys have thrown down the gauntlet. Petrolheads...your move.

I honestly doubt an ICE powered vehicle will ever hold the outright record again. This is one of those scenarios where BEV's hold a huge advantage due to not being constrained by oxygen levels to produce maximum power.

[bill shoe]

VW's speed: Wow! (grudgingly, but serious).

And the record was set within sight of Pike's Peak International Raceway, a paved short oval that VW used as a storage limbo for buy-back diesel cars.

[MadMatt]

I believe we noodle-armed, tea-sipping, tofu-eating EV mama's boys have thrown down the gauntlet. Petrolheads...your move.

I honestly doubt an ICE powered vehicle will ever hold the outright record again. This is one of those scenarios where BEV's hold a huge advantage due to not being constrained by oxygen levels to produce maximum power.

I disagree. If you fit an ICE powerful enough, the loss of power will still make it more powerful than the electric engine. Just fit a 1500-1800bhp Nissan GTR engine and forget about it.

[roon]

I believe we noodle-armed, tea-sipping, tofu-eating EV mama's boys have thrown down the gauntlet. Petrolheads...your move.

I honestly doubt an ICE powered vehicle will ever hold the outright record again. This is one of those scenarios where BEV's hold a huge advantage due to not being constrained by oxygen levels to produce maximum power.

I disagree. If you fit an ICE powerful enough, the loss of power will still make it more powerful than the electric engine. Just fit a 1500-1800bhp Nissan GTR engine and forget about it.

An invariable power source would probably be better for the driver. Consistency. One less thing to accommodate. Focus moves elsewhere.

[djos]

I believe we noodle-armed, tea-sipping, tofu-eating EV mama's boys have thrown down the gauntlet. Petrolheads...your move.

I honestly doubt an ICE powered vehicle will ever hold the outright record again. This is one of those scenarios where BEV's hold a huge advantage due to not being constrained by oxygen levels to produce maximum power.

I disagree. If you fit an ICE powerful enough, the loss of power will still make it more powerful than the electric engine. Just fit a 1500-1800bhp Nissan GTR engine and forget about it.

The driveability of a car powered like that would be extremely poor, I just don't see that happening!

[Andres125sx]

Yeah sure if you race with a x2 power AWD ICE it will be faster, but I´d say that´s not the question right?

For similar power EV are faster, period, even with current heavy batteries. Their only drawback is range while batteries evolve a bit more, but for races like this where they only need to run for 8 minutes I think there´s no doubt at all about what´s faster

Also, compare Peugeot team and driver with this, Peugeot was a top team with one of the best drivers in history, Dumas is a good driver obviously, but far from Loeb category

[roon]

Was this project an offshoot of the VW rally team? Or the Audi WEC effort? Something else entirely? Moving funding from the diesel race car to the electrical race car would make sense in terms of dieselgate PR.

[J.A.W.]

World Record for VW

Really strad?
Has the FIA ratified Pike's Peak as a venue for such, & duly verified VW's effort, accordingly?

[Zynerji]

I believe we noodle-armed, tea-sipping, tofu-eating EV mama's boys have thrown down the gauntlet. Petrolheads...your move.

I honestly doubt an ICE powered vehicle will ever hold the outright record again. This is one of those scenarios where BEV's hold a huge advantage due to not being constrained by oxygen levels to produce maximum power.

I think the instantaneous, linear torque helps as well. Less revs needed for power saves time.

[J.A.W.]

I believe we noodle-armed, tea-sipping, tofu-eating EV mama's boys have thrown down the gauntlet. Petrolheads...your move.

Well if the Porsche 919 'time attack stunt team' get the VAG gig for P.P.`19, then yeah, for sure, its on..

(& I note that Peugeot has slipped Seb his 'ICE record car' - maybe with a view - to an 'upgrade' & go ahead - for `19, too?)

[strad]

The Colorado event has proven a big hit over the years, the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) counting at times as many as 200 cars entering the race.
But FIA said back in March that this variety strength can also sometimes be the competitions weakness. Because there are so many different types of cars involved, it is very difficult for the governing body to propose standardized rules. Because of this, as well as because of a number of other factors, the FIA Hill Climb Commission, with the support of the Technical Department of the organization, has conducted this past year a review of hill climb competitions rules with the goal to develop “regulations that are as inclusive and as practical as possible.”
FIA does not take into account the origin of the car.
As of 2018, FIA would be introducing the Performance Factor (Pf), a standard technical framework enabling the inclusion of a maximum number of cars. As per the new Pf, all cars with a combustion engine of less than 6,500 cc are permitted to enter hill climbs, provided they conform to minimum safety standards as defined by the current FIA regulations.
The use of Pf means, says FIA, that the number of classes and categories would thus be reduced to five or six, eliminating ambiguities.

[roon]

[VARIANT | one]

I believe we noodle-armed, tea-sipping, tofu-eating EV mama's boys have thrown down the gauntlet. Petrolheads...your move.

I honestly doubt an ICE powered vehicle will ever hold the outright record again. This is one of those scenarios where BEV's hold a huge advantage due to not being constrained by oxygen levels to produce maximum power.

I dunno... a bit academic, a few observations here:

1. EV or not, this is probably the most aerodynamically aggressive car to run at Pikes Peak, and not just speaking from the downforce side of things, but the L:D ratio almost certainly has a leg up on anything that's raced here before. We know what was optimal from the early '90s WSC cars and modern LMP developments. Loeb's Peugeot, for instance, wasn't getting the importance of that by putting a shitbox rally car body on a LMP underbody. Get a 905B out of mothball, at the least, guys. Anyway, a rally car is not what it takes it win this race, a prototype is. It's a bit of apples/oranges.

2. I think VW focused even harder on the aero side than on the EV side of things. It's the big talking point, but they went rather conservative on the outright power (which raised eyebrows), almost certainly to keep the downforce:weight ratio high. They obviously found a balance of aero efficiency and battery weight that made the best compromise.

3. EV right now has been culturally been given carte blanche in terms of development while ICE development has been hampered due to road regulations that have almost completely influenced motorsport regulations. While Pikes Peak is the biggest opportunity to go apeshit with ANY type of engine development, there isn't development history or president set for, say, 2-cycle engines. They've been choked out the vast majority of forms of racing for some time now, Moto 500 being the last time they've been seen at top levels of tarmac motorsport. Turbines as well have been nipped in the bud. In other sectors where emissions and/or noise restrictions haven't led the hand of motorsport rule makers things like uniflow 2-cycle piston engines (ships) and turbines (airplanes and jets) have continued to develop and employ them.

4. More "motorsporty" ICE mills aside, do we honestly think that a lighter ICE version of this exact same car with the same power (turbo compensated for altitude) wouldn't be faster? Keep in mind weight is dropping off the car as the fuel burns off. I'm a green energy fanboy off the track, and it's cool to see this stuff continue to get developed, but unhatched chickens are being counted, me thinks. Maybe we'll get a Spa lap vs. the 919 Evo and see for sure.

Food for thought.