#1Score2Settle, it seems.
Volkswagen has a rather tetchy relationship with Pikes Peak, the famous hillclimb course in Colorado that the German company last attempted some 30-years ago. It appears, rather surprisingly, that they’re planning to take another crack at the course next year, after posting a series of teasers on social media hinting at a high-performance electric vehicle that has been designed specifically to tame the climb.
“The Pikes Peak hill climb is one of the worlds’ most renowned car races. It poses an enormous challenge and is excellently suited to proving the capabilities of upcoming technologies. Our electric race car will be equipped with innovative battery and drive technology.” — Dr. Frank Welsch, Member of the Board (Development), Volkswagen
In 1987, renowned driver Jochi Kleint was armed with a twin-engined Golf GTi hatchback that was built specifically for the hillclimb, packing some 486kW of power, capable of rocketing the performance special from rest to 100km/h in just 3.4-seconds. With just a whisker over a tonne of weight, the car put its power down through all-four wheels, and put Kleint in pole-position for most of the run, before the front suspension buckled just two turns before the finish line that sits 4031m above sea level.
The vehicle being prepared for 2018 is a project worked on jointly by Volkswagen Motorsport and Wolfsburg’s Technical Development. The project aims to set the tone for Volkswagen’s electrified future, allaying fears that the German conglomerate’s focus on sustainability will not come at the cost of driving pleasure.
No specifics have been offered up ahead of the cars’ debut at the event, though the teasers have clearly shown off the enormous aerodynamic addenda being applied to the car to ensure it sticks to the road like glue, as well as the pod-like cockpit and shapely exterior design. This is clearly a purpose-built vehicle, and not a tarted-up production vehicle, though the platform on which its built could come from familiar sources within the Volkswagen parts bin.
“The race on Pikes Peak is a new beginning for us. We are developing an all-electric race vehicle for the first time. The project is also an important milestone in our new motorsport orientation. Our team is literally electrified about taking on this incredible challenge.” — Sven Smeets, Director, Volkswagen Motorsports
The Pikes Peak International Hill Climb, sometimes called the ‘Race to the Clouds,’ first began in 1916 in the Rocky Mountains, in the mountainous US state of Colorado. The course now stands at 19.99-kilometres long (they should have rounded up), climbing some 1,440 metres to the lofty summit. When the electric Volkswagen arrives, it will have to take on the existing electric-prototype class record at 8-minutes and 57.118-seconds, set by Rhys Millen behind the wheel of an e0 PP100 in 2016, as well as the electric “production car” record set by Faraday Future that clocked in at 11-minutes 25.083-seconds that was set in June.
For more information on Volkswagen, check out our Showroom.
