And it’ll aim to beat a time set by gamers across the globe.
German marque Volkswagen are preparing their headlining I.D. R all-electric racer for yet another challenge, after having smashed both the EV record & overall record for any vehicle at last years’ Pikes Peak hillclimb challenge. The new task couldn’t be further away from Colorado Springs – the I.D. R will very soon set the pace up the 99-corner Tianmen Shan Big Gate Road.
The near-11km road rises 3,615ft in total, leading to a cave atop the Tianmen Mountain, which is about 1,500km south-west of Beijing. The ID R won’t be breaking records this time, just setting them – a competitive time has never been set on the Tianmen Shan, and so VW’s opened up the competition to gamers the world over. This will permit gamers to set a time for driver Romain Dumas to best in the real world.
The biggest challenge for Dumas, he says, is the lack of knowledge of the course.
“So far, I only know the road from photos and a few videos. The route is very winding, extremely narrow in places, and very uneven.” – Romain Dumas, 2-time Le Mans Winner, 4-time 24hr Nürburgring Winner, Volkswagen I.D. R Driver
With two electric motors giving the I.D. R a total of 500kW and 650Nm, we suspect that the LMP-1 bodied machine may find the Tianmen mountain road a bit difficult. Because with 99 corners squeezed into less than 11km, we can’t imagine there’ll be alot of speed between the corners or indeed in them. This would prove disadvantageous (we think) to the I.D. R as its enormous aerodynamic addenda won’t really be that effective.
Also, we wouldn’t be all that brave on a mountain road…
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