Skip to main content

How VW Made the I.D. R Lightweight

You’ve heard by now that VW is going after the electric record at Pikes Peak, but what you might not know is that it will be chasing that record with considerably less horsepower than the car that set the record.

The eO PP100, which set the electric record back in 2016 was making something like 1,600 hp. The I.D. R only makes about 670 hp. 

There are a couple of other areas where it improves over the record holder, though. The VW team went to extreme lengths to cut weight, making the body out of a carbon fiber-kevlar composite and running through countless simulations to ensure that construction was as lightweight as possible.

“Before we actually assembled the I.D. R Pikes Peak, we used computers to analyze a multitude of different configurations,” says Willy Rampf, technical adviser to the project. Every part went through the simulator to make that it was as light as possible, while still being strong enough to contend with the forces exerted through the run.

Even the seatbelts and cushions were made as light as possible, as were Romain Dumas’ racing overalls. In fact, the thread used to attach a Pikes Peak-mandated patch weighs as much as the whole rest of the suit.

After all that, the car only weighs 1,100 kg with the driver in it (about 2,400 lbs), but given the time constraints and a safety system made out of steel and aluminum–rather than the lighter weight titanium that many conventional race cars use–the car only weighs 100 kg (220 lbs) less than the eO PP100 (sans driver).

But racing is about more than just power to weight ratios. Volkswagen’s figures its comparatively low hp figure is its advantage. In electric more power not only means more weight, it means bigger batteries.

By only giving the car 670 hp and requiring it to recover 20% of its energy over the course of the race, it has a relatively compact battery pack that can all be placed alongside and behind the driver (Romain Dumas) meaning that the car will have perfect weight distribution.

Along with the Porsche-aided aero equipment and the expertise of Dumas, who has raced and won at Pikes Peak before, VW is hoping to make it to the top in less than 8:57. Still, with the horsepower deficit, it won’t be an easy feat.

The post How VW Made the I.D. R Lightweight appeared first on VWVortex.



from VWVortex https://ift.tt/2JbQjgC
via IFTTT

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Watch: The Story of the Ads that Made VW Big in America

The ads for the original Beetle are almost as famous and well-loved as the Beetle itself. Looking back now it’s easy to forget, though, just how easily things could have wrong. A new short from Dial M Films tracks the history of those early Volkswagen ads that sold America on the people’s car. The story, of course, begins with the visionary agency that made the ads: Doyle Dane Bernach (DDB). As a popular agency for Jewish products, no agency was more aware of the implications of Volkswagen, and no one, it seems, was more skeptical of the brand than DDB. “Remember Those Great Volkswagen Ads?” from Dial M Films on Vimeo . William Bernbach, though, was adament that the firm take the client, probably as a way of attracting other lucrative automotive clients. Saddled with a client that he didn’t want, art director Helmut Krone says in the film that he originally came up with ads that were all wrong. Krone tried to do what other manufacturers did and was intent on selling the Beetle ...

Watch: The Stig Drives (nearly) Seven Generations of Golf GTI

With Volkswagen announcing “major” updates to the Golf, it seems an appropriate time to look back on what we’ve had so far. And who better to guide us through the rich history of the most popular European car ever made than Ben Collins, the former Stig? Some say he’s never met a GTI he doesn’t love, and that he can’t grow any of his own facial hair. All we know is … Ben Collins is actually a pretty solid presenter. Working his way through seven generations of the GTI (skipping over the Mk6) Collins tells us a little bit about each one and matches each mark to its corresponding facial hair craze. The Mk1 GTI for instance, is light and quick, but can lose traction under hard acceleration (in heavy rain). Despite that, Collins calls the Mk1 a “pure gem.” The Mk4, meanwhile, is a powerful return to form after the perhaps too sensible Mk3. Collins ends in the only way he could, with the Mk7, which accelerates faster than a Lamborghini Countach and is all kinds of wonderful. Watch, ...

Volkswagen Golf GTE Wins Top Honor at the 2015 Business Techies Awards

Golf GTE wins Green category in the 2015 BusinessCar Fleet Technology awards Judges praised the Golf GTE for its performance, ease of use and economy Golf GTE launched earlier this year with plug-in hybrid technology – priced from £33,755 204 PS performance combined with CO 2  emissions of just 39 g/km Volkswagen has added to its growing list of 2015 automotive industry accolades by winning the Green category in the annual BusinessCar Fleet Technology Awards – the Techies. The prestigious title was awarded to Volkswagen for the Golf GTE, an innovative plug-in hybrid that combines sporty dynamics with exceptional fuel economy and low CO 2  emissions. Now in their seventh year, the Techies are judged by both BusinessCar’s experienced editorial panel with help from TRL’s technology expert. The industry’s only technology-specific awards, the BusinessCar Techies reward the use of technology to make business car fleet operations easier, cheaper, cleaner, safer and more straig...