Watch the VW ID.R Smash the EV Nurburgring Lap Record
Editor's Note: This article, originally published June 3rd, 2019 at 10:00am, has been updated with new in-car video of the record lap, including telemetry.
Volkswagen's ID.R, the automaker's electric race car that recently shattered the Pikes Peak record, has just set a new EV lap record at the Nurburgring with a time of 6:05.336. The lap, set by driver Romain Dumas, beats the previous EV record-holder, the NIO EP9, by over 40 seconds.
Volkswagen announced it would run the ID.R in a 'Ring record attempt in early 2019. Modifying the Pikes Peak record holder for peak performance at the Green Hell required a ton of mechanical and electronic changes, but the same car now holds two wildly disparate racing records. The ID.R's time beat Stefan Bellof's long-standing lap record of 6:11.13 behind the wheel of a Porsche 956 in 1983, though it fell considerably short of the Porsche 919 Evo's current 5:19.55 record.
6:05.336 minutes! New electric lap record by the Volkswagen ID.R on the Nürburgring-Nordschleife. Another milestone in electro-mobility. #IDR #JustElectric #Nordschleife #challengeacceptID #eRecord #WeDidIt pic.twitter.com/CVfSvIghvX
- VolkswagenMotorsport (@volkswagenms) June 3, 2019
Volkswagen says Dumas managed an average of 128.6 mph around the 144-turn circuit. If this is the future, we're totally on board with it.
Check out this onboard video showing the full lap, complete with telemetry, that Volkswagen Motorsport published on June 7. We can't get over how strange it is to watch a car going so incredibly fast, but only making a light high-pitched electric motor noise. It's clear that Romain Dumas is working incredibly hard throughout this lap.
Here's another in-cabin video from another angle:
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