Skip to main content

I.D. R Powered by Next Generation Formula E Motor

Set to take off on a record attempt at Pikes Peak on Sunday, the I.D. R has been meeting all of Volkswagen Motorsport’s expectations. Late this week, it qualified well ahead of the rest of the pack and with temperatures expected to stay cool in Colorado Springs, things are looking good for the car.

That’s even despite the very short timeline that VW Motorsport had to put the car together. According to the team, they really did only have nine months to build this car from scratch. Which might explain why it isn’t quite built from scratch.

The car, according to Francois-Xavier Demaison, Technical Director at Volkswagen Motorsport, is an amalgam of parts from other projects, arranged especially for Pikes Peak.

As has been reported, Volkswagen got a lot of help from Porsche for its aero kit, with some going so far as to claim that its aerodynamic elements are effectively copy-pasted—with everything set to 11—from Porsche’s Le Mans-winning car.

The monocoque, meanwhile, is borrowed from Romain Dumas’ previous Pikes Peak car, the Norma MXX RD. Time prevented the team from designing its own carbon monocoque, which meant compromises on battery placement. With the car’s core already laid out for them, and designed for a combustion engine, the team couldn’t quite get its batteries quite where it would have ideally liked them.

Still, though, they appear to have done a good job, because the car qualified 11 seconds ahead of its closest competitor in qualifying and it’s also based on the Norma monocoque.

One of the big reasons for that advantage, though, might be the motors. For the Hill Climb, the I.D. R is running next year’s Formula E motor, which Demaison says is a big improvement over the current unit.

But don’t forget, the I.D. R has two motors, so it will run a full-sized Formula E motor in the back, and a miniaturized version of it in the front.

[See image gallery at www.vwvortex.com]

Although VW only has it churning out about 600 hp, Demaison says it’s capable of much more. The team wants Dumas to be on full attack for the whole run up Pikes Peak, so 600 hp provides the car with the best compromise between power and battery lightness.

Those batteries, meanwhile, are provided by a third party supplier and Demaison says that between bringing up the project to them nine months ago and now, their technology has improved considerably—such is the pace of development for electric race cars.

For now, though, everything is locked in and the team will have to settle for the setup they’ve got as they prepare to take on the fearsome Pikes Peak International Hill Climb on Sunday.

Mind you, the team is doing pretty well for all the time constraints placed on them. Having qualified fastest, theirs will be the first car off the line on Sunday, starting at 10 am.

The post I.D. R Powered by Next Generation Formula E Motor appeared first on VWVortex.



from VWVortex https://ift.tt/2IhYfZh
via IFTTT
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Waterfest Moves to Atco Dragway

Waterfest 24 will be held at Atco Dragway, in Atco, New Jersey. The summer event will take place at its new venue on July 21 and 22. Long held in Englishtown, New Jersey, the festival has been such a large part of the VW scene that the latest iteration of the Golf even comes with optional “Englishtown” wheels . The new venue, however, is an NHRA drag track a scant 52 miles southwest of Englishtown. The ¼ mile drag track opened in 1960, which makes it the oldest drag strip in New Jersey. The announcement came today on a social media post that announced the new location. Waterfest is North America’s largest VW/Audi show. As many 20,000 people show up for the annual show, making the second largest show in the world—with Worthersee being number one. 2018 will be Waterfest’s 24 th year in existence. The post Waterfest Moves to Atco Dragway appeared first on VWVortex . from VWVortex http://ift.tt/2GQjkuc via IFTTT
Post a Comment
Read more

Macau Gets Messy with 16-Car Pileup

The Macau Grand Prix is always good for an accident or two or 16— you may remember Audi’s race ending crash last year —and this year’s event didn’t disappoint. It didn’t take long for things to get messy on the tight road circuit. On the opening lap of the qualifying race a 16-car pileup caused the race to be suspended. Things kicked off when Daniel Juncadella hit a wall on the exit of Police bend, one of the tightest parts of the already tight circuit. The following car of Raffaele Marciello was able to avoid the carnage, but Laurens Vanthoor, who was in the upside-down Audi that ended the race last year, could not avoid Juncadella and together they blocked up the road pretty much completely. “I couldn’t see him [Juncadella] at first. Then I saw the car standing still,” Vanthoor told Motorsport. “I tried to brake but it was just understeering and I couldn’t do anything. There’s room for one car there and you’re blind.” Fourteen more cars would eventually crash into the corner c
Post a Comment
Read more

The First of its Kind: Integrated Engineering Releases Highly-Anticipated IE450T MK6 Golf R Turbo Kit

After two long years of development, the team at Integrated Engineering has finally announced the release of their IE450T kit for the MK6 Golf R. With their turbo kit bolted on right out of the box, the sport AWD hatch is transformed into a 450bhp monster, with hardly any noticeable increase in spool time. In fact, 435 ft-lbs of torque are achieved at all four wheels, at a mere 3300rpm! By now you are probably asking yourself how this is even possible on a 2.0L engine that made nearly half that power from the factory. By employing true twin-scroll technology into the cast turbo manifold and pairing it with a state-of-the-art BorgWarner EFR turbocharger, IE was able to keep spool time at a minimum and bring the fastest-spooling big turbo setup to the market. “We wanted to offer a kit that would dramatically increase the power output without making the car lose its amazing street-friendly drivability,” mentioned one of the IE engineers. We are told the IE450T leaves the car driving jus
Post a Comment
Read more