Volkswagen came, it saw, and it conquered Pikes Peak. Its time was not only a new record for the fastest electric vehicle to scale the 12.42-mile hill climb, but at 7min 57.148 secs, it also smashed the outright Pikes Peak record, held by Peugeot and Sebastien Loeb, by over 15 seconds.

Driven by the 40-year-old, two-time Le Mans winner and previous Pikes Peak winner Romain Dumas, Volkswagen’s I.D R Pikes Peak averaged over 90mph as it climbed the 5000ft, 156-turn course. Powered by its two electric motors developing in the region of 670bhp the car and driver had to contend with variable weather conditions on the only full course run they completed.

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> VW ID R Nurburgring record attempt

Volkswagen came, it saw, and it conquered Pikes Peak. Its time was not only a new record for the fastest electric... Posted by Official EVO Magazine on Tuesday, June 26, 2018

As fastest qualifier, Dumas was the first car on the hill after the motorbike class had set their times. Starting in bright sunshine at the hill climb’s start (itself set at over 9,000ft) the VW driver powered through the lower third of the course to the first band of cloud, but it was on the higher sections of the peak, particularly as he closed in on the finish line at 14,115ft, that a thick blanket of grey cloud settled in, meaning Dumas completed the last phase of the climb, which includes some of the trickiest and most dangerous sections of the course, in low visibility.