The Volkswagen I.D. R is coming to FOS 2019

It’s just two weeks since the ID. R set the electric lap record at the Nürburgring with a time of 6 minutes 5.336 seconds, decimating the previous electric record by more than 40 seconds. That achievement came just a year after the car took an all-time record at the Pikes Peak Hillclimb, with a time of 7 minutes 57.148 seconds.

Now, Volkswagen says, the ID. R will be making the trip to Goodwood to “defend its title”, having set the fastest time on Shootout Sunday in 2018 with a time of 43.86 seconds.

Climbing behind the wheel of the ID. R at the Festival will be the same man who piloted the car in Germany, at Pikes Peak and at FOS 2018: Romain Dumas. Dumas fought off stiff competition from Joerg Weidinger in a BMW E36 V8 Judd, with a time of 46.43 seconds, and Peter Dumbreck in the all-electric NIO EP9, with a time of 44.32 seconds, to claim top honours on the Hillclimb.

Sven Smeets, Volkswagen’s Motorsport Director, said “Last year, we lined up in Goodwood just three weeks after the record-breaking run on Pikes Peak and used the same technical configuration as we did at the hill climb. This year, we will field an ID. R that has been prepared specifically for Goodwood.”

François-Xavier Demaison, Technical Director at Volkswagen Motorsport, explains the changes in a bit more detail: “We have developed another evolutionary stage of the ID. R – a sprint version with smaller batteries, in order to further reduce weight.

“We have also opted for a far more aggressive energy management strategy for the short distance. You need very high output for a very short time for the sprint in Goodwood.”

So will the ID. R claim top honours in 2019?

Photography courtesy of Adam Beresford and Drew Gibson.