By: RACER Staff June 24, 2018 3:00 PM Romain Dumas, Volkswagen and the fully electric I.D. R Pikes Peak made history together at today’s Pikes Peak International Hill Climb. Driving the 500-kW (680 PS) I.D. R Pikes Peak in the unique race up the 12.42-mile, 156-turn public toll road which climbs from the start at 9,390 ft. to a power-robbing 14,115 ft. elevation, Frenchman Dumas defeated a field including cars with conventional drivetrain technology. In doing so, he not only broke the previous record for electric vehicles, but also bettered Sebastien Loeb’s all-time record from 2013 in a Peugeot 208 T16 by a full 16 seconds, delivering a time of 7m57.148s.
For Dumas, it was a fourth Pikes Peak victory, to go with his pair of overall victories at the 24 Hours of Le Mans.“The I.D. R Pikes Peak is the sporty forerunner of Volkswagen’s fully-electric I.D. family. Today, we saw what this technology is capable of,” said Dr. Frank Welsch, Member of the Board of Management of the Volkswagen Passenger Cars brand Technical Development. “Every Volkswagen employee can be extremely proud of today’s result. I congratulate the team from the bottom of my heart. With a combination of outstanding engineering skill, passion and commitment, the team has managed to create a fantastic racing car in just eight months. The Volkswagen I.D. R Pikes Peak has now set the fastest time in the history of this hill climb, which spans more than 100 years – that speaks volumes for electric mobility.”Peter Cunningham won the Pikes Peak Open class with his Acura TLX GT, with a time of 9m27.352s.This year’s TLX GT featured a power-enhanced J35 twin-turbo V6 motor with new software mapping, new transmission gearing, revised suspension geometry and Pirelli racing slicks. Long-time Acura racing partner and owner of RealTime Racing, Peter Cunningham, was last year’s Pikes Peak Rookie of the Year.“I’m so proud of our Acura and RealTime Racing team, who, as usual, brought their A-game to the top of the mountain,” said Cunningham. “We had some incredibly tough competition this year, but all of our hard work, building on the great fundamentals of the Acura TLX, paid off in a big way again this year.”Other class winners included Paul Dallenbach in Open wheel (9m37.135s), David Donohue in Time Attack 1 (9m37.152s) and Carlin Dunne in Heavyweight (9m59.102s).