VW ID R Obliterates Nurburgring EV Record With 06:05 Lap

Most of us were probably expecting VW to snag the electric vehicle record at the Nurburgring - it was just a question of the margin the ID R would beat the Nio EP9 by. Now, we have our answer - the gap is absolutely colossal.

The ID R - which had a record-breaking performance at the Pikes Peak International Hillclimb last year - has set a hugely impressive 06:05.3 lap around the Nordschleife. That’s a whopping 40 seconds faster than the Nio, a car which has getting on for double the output of the VW.

It’s also nearly six seconds faster than Stefan Bellof’s famous run in a Porsche 956, which remained the outright record from 1983 up until last year when the 919 Evo set a 5min 19sec lap.

Like the 919, the ID R was extensively modified from its original guise to go record-hunting. The biggest change involved the rear wing, which was changed for a lower, smaller piece to reduce downforce by 20 per cent, dropped further still during parts of the run using an F1-style drag reduction. It also received a new floor, front splitter and battery management tweaks.

“For this evolved version of the ID R, the aerodynamic configuration was more strongly adapted to the highest possible speed, rather than maximum downforce,” said François-Xavier Demaison, the programme’s tech boss. A balance was struck between keeping the top speed along the Nurburgring’s long straights as high as possible, without harming cornering speeds too much. The car’s transformation was completed over just five months.

As with last year’s runs at Pikes Peak and the Goodwood Festival of Speed, French racing driver Romain Dumas was behind the wheel for the record-breaking stint. Looking at the onboard footage of the lap, we wonder if he might need a pay rise…