Well, don’t say we didn’t warn you! The previous Goodwood record may have stood for 20 years, but this one barely stood for 20 hours as Romain Dumas smashed his own the benchmark time at the Festival of Speed yesterday.
The Frenchman had managed to take just 00:00:42 seconds out of Nick Heidfeld’s two-decade-old record on Friday, but following a good night’s sleep and a hearty breakfast he went and found a further 00:01:28 seconds during Saturday’s timed runs.
Driving at what seemed to be the absolute limit, both of the track and the machine, Dumas’ new time of 00:39:90 looks like a mightily hard one to beat. Although, his Volkswagen ID.R’s speed across the finish line has been around 10mph down on its rivals, meaning there is still room for further improvement yet.
Check out the video of the new record-breaking run below. And keep your eyes peeled; with one final timed run to come on Sunday, we may still be updating this article once more this weekend…
ORIGINAL STORY - 05.07.19
It's only gone and done it. Nick Heidfeld's 20-year old Goodwood hillclimb record has finally fallen, not to another sonorous F1 machine - if those even exist anymore - but to VW's all-conquering ID.R.
The bespoke EV found fame last year, when it set a new electric record at Colorado's Pikes Peak hillclimb, and came to the Festival of Speed fresh from smashing yet another barrier, that of the fastest ever electric car to lap the Nurburgring Nordschleife. While perhaps not as big a scalp as its previous two accomplishments, then, its feat at Goodwood is noteworthy for being an outright, overall, heavyweight champion of the world title, beating times set not just by other EVs, but by petrol, diesel, steam and pedal (we assume) powered machines as well.
And the new benchmark? That'll be 0:41:18 seconds, besting Heidfeld's MP4/13 time of 0:41:60 by the slimmest of margins. The driver who can now dine out on stories of his derring-do is of course two-time Le Mans winner Romain Dumas, who has piloted the ID.R throughout its record setting life. Dumas averaged a speed of 101.4mph up the hillclimb route, more than living up to the festivals 2019 theme of 'Speed Kings, Motorsport Record Breakers'.
Volkswagen Motorsport Director Sven Smeets said of the accomplishment: "The Goodwood Festival of Speed Hillclimb is one of the most iconic hillclimbs in the world. 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." With two days of the FoS yet to run, the question must now surely be whether it can go quicker still... For now, though, huge PH congratulations to everyone involved.
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