Volkswagen and Michelin establish new Pikes Peak record!

After collecting four WRC Manufacturers’ titles together, Volkswagen and Michelin returned to their winning ways on Sunday with victory at the celebrated Pikes Peak International Hill Climb in Colorado, USA. Frenchman Romain Dumas posted a new record for the course in the German make’s exciting I.D R full-electric prototype.

Five years after Sébastien Loeb stopped the clock at 8m13.878s driving the 850-horsepower, Michelin-equipped Peugeot 208 T16 in 2015, Volkswagen picked up the gauntlet this year in an attempt to better the nine-time world rally champion’s record for the 20-kilometre, 156-turn ‘Race to the Clouds’ which climbs to an altitude of 4,301 metres.

To benefit from bespoke tyres for its twin-motor, four-wheel drive, 680-horsepower all-electric prototype, Volkswagen called on the expertise of Michelin.

The task of driving the new car – which accelerates from standstill to 100kph in just 2.25 seconds (faster than an F1 car) – was assigned to two-time Le Mans winner and former World Endurance champion Romain Dumas who is also a skilled rally driver (Porsche/Michelin) and a three-time previous Pikes Peak winner.

The basic target was to better the improve on the record for an electric car (8m57.118s) which was posted in 2016 by Rhys Millen. But VW and Dumas did much better than that, since the Frenchman smashed Loeb’s benchmark with a time of 7m57.148s to establish a new outright record!