The Goodwood Competition of Pace occurred this weekend, and Ford’s electrical SuperVan managed to beat each different automobile, gasoline or electrical, to the highest of the hill.
The Goodwood Competition of Pace is a yearly occasion on the grounds of Goodwood Home, a historic property in West Sussex, England. The occasion began in 1993, and has turn into one of many largest motorsports festivals on this planet.
Many firms attend Goodwood to debut new fashions, and fanatics or race groups will exhibit uncommon or custom-made automobiles or race distinctive vehicles.
One of many central options of the occasion is the Goodwood hillclimb, a brief one-way race up a small hill on the property. The observe is just one.17mi/1.89km lengthy, with a 304ft/92.7m uphill climb. It’s not a very taxing occasion – merely a enjoyable method to exhibit some basic or distinctive racing automobiles.
This 12 months, a number of EVs debuted at Goodwood, together with these beforehand coated on Electrek:
Many of those automobiles take part within the hillclimb, although some do it solely in an illustration capability – they’re not attempting for the perfect time, simply displaying off in entrance of the group.
However different automobiles be a part of the “shootout,” the race occasion for bragging rights, attempting to get the highest time to the highest of the hill.
For 20 years, the report was held by a 1998 V10 F1 automobile piloted by Nick Heidfeld. That report was damaged in 2019 by Romain Dumas driving VW’s ID.R electrical racecar, after which in 2022, the present 39.08 second report was set by Max Chilton within the McMurtry Spierling “fan automobile,” an electrical automobile which makes use of a large fan below the automobile to create unfavourable stress for added downforce to assist acceleration and cornering.
This 12 months, no person was actually going for the report, however the huge contest was between two automobiles: Subaru’s “Mission Midnight,” a closely modified WRX with a 670hp flat-four ICE engine piloted by Scott Pace; and Ford’s SuperVan, an E-Transit-in-name-only that has been rebuilt as a 1,400hp racecar and was piloted by former recordholder Romain Dumas.
In qualifying, the 2 automobiles have been neck and neck, with the SuperVan pipping the Subaru by a tenth of a second – 45.0 to 45.1. However it might be right down to the wire on the Sunday Shootout.
And when the outcomes got here in on Sunday, the SuperVan smashed the WRX – with a time of 43.98 seconds, in comparison with the ICE Subaru’s 46.07.
Right here’s the video, queued up for the SuperVan (if you wish to watch earlier runs, scroll again – the SuperVan is the final one – and the official timing reveals a bit totally different than what’s proven on the published):
This isn’t the primary spectacular displaying from the SuperVan. Ford shattered observe information at Bathurst in it, and took it to Pike’s Peak final 12 months as nicely and had a formidable displaying. This 12 months, Ford despatched a unique automobile to Pike’s Peak, the SuperTruck, which set the quickest time of the day however didn’t set a report (and certainly was slower than the SuperVan’s earlier effort – because the SuperTruck had an sudden shutdown partway up the hill this 12 months).
And all of that is significantly fascinating as a result of race vehicles aren’t speculated to be large vans. Sustaining low weight is a vital side for a racecar, because the extra you weigh, the tougher it’s to speed up, brake and switch. So this honking beast’s efficiency is kind of spectacular – although we expect we’d fairly have one thing a bit smaller for regular racing functions.
Yet one more piece of EV information from this 12 months’s Goodwood – Lotus introduced its one-off, multi-million-dollar Evija X, which it used to set an insane 6:24.047 laptime at Nurburgring earlier this 12 months, and managed to crash it instantly after the beginning line as its 1,704Nm of torque turned unmanageable from a standing begin. So we’ll have to attend to see what time it would set… presumably with traction management activated subsequent time.
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