All posts in “Volkswagen ID. R”

Watch Chris Harris in the electric VW ID.R waste a McLaren 720S

The Volkswagen ID.R doesn’t have much in common with a McLaren 720S, other than the fact that they are both performance-crazed cars. One gets its power from batteries, the other from gas. One uses electric motors, the other a twin-turbocharged 4.0-liter V8. One is a halo prototype vehicle, the other is a road-legal supercar available for purchase. So when Chris Harris and “Top Gear“ decided to “race” the two against each other, it was more of a demonstration of the VW’s unreal capabilities than any sort of real competitive faceoff.

In episode five of Top Gear‘s 28th season, which just aired February 23, the trio of Harris, Freddie Flintoff and Paddy McGuinness welcomed Youtuber KSI on the show and ventured out on a luxury sports car road trip with an Aston Martin, Porsche, and Ferrari. Separately, Harris took to the track to test out Volkswagen’s golden egg of the moment, the ID.R.

As VW fully launches into its electric-vehicle push, the ID.R is meant to exhibit what battery-electric technology is capable of. With two electric motors, one on the front axle and one on the rear axle, the 2,425-pound ID.R has four-wheel drive and makes a claimed 670 horsepower. As Harris notes in the video, the ID.R. was not built for a specific regulation-bogged racing organization or competition, and thus, it’s only held back by the rules of Mother Nature and Father Physics. Since the car’s debut, it has been annihilating records around the world, including at Pike’s Peak, Goodwood, the Nürburgring, and Heaven’s Gate.

Chris Harris didn’t set any records in the ID.R., but he certainly showed how outrageous this machine is. The 710-horsepower 720S can go from zero mph to 62 mph in less than three seconds, and the ID.R has a sizable lead within that same time. Again, this wasn’t an instance of test-and-conclude, it was a show of perspective. The ID.R is a race car, so even though the 720S is one of the best supercars in the world, it never stood a chance. See for yourself above.

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February 24, 2020 / Comments Off on Watch Chris Harris in the electric VW ID.R waste a McLaren 720S
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VW’s ID R Sets A New Nurburgring EV Record

This Is One Fast Battery-Powered Machine

VW’s ID R was already known to be a super-fast car, but now it has further proof. The car obliterated the EV Nurburgring time. It smashed the record by cutting off 40 seconds from the old record. 40 seconds. Good Lord that’s a lot of time. It’s actually the second fastest car ever to make the lap of the racetrack. 

The car manages to lay down a 6:05.3 lap time, which puts the Nio EP9 securely in the rearview. Forget the Nio, the ID R is the new king by a long shot. The only car that’s beaten the ID R’s lap time is the 919 EVO with a time of five minutes and 19 seconds, according to Car Throttle. That means we’ll need to update our list of top Nurburgring lap times.

“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 program’s tech boss. By not worrying quite so much about downforce, the car was truly able to fly around the racetrack.

The reduction in downforce may have raised top speed, but that would have made the car a little less stable around the corners. Still, it doesn’t seem to have mattered. Romain Dumas, the French racing driver who set the pike’s peak record in the ID R last year, was obviously able to handle it. 

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June 4, 2019 / Comments Off on VW’s ID R Sets A New Nurburgring EV Record
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