This Is Volkswagen's New Pikes Peak Monster, And It Looks Furious

Volkswagen has confirmed its intention to run at next year's Pikes Peak race, and it's aiming directly at the electric prototype course record with this angry-looking and aero-festooned beast

Matt Kimberley

23 Oct 2017

Volkswagen is building an electric racecar in an attempt to set a new Pikes Peak record next year.

The as-yet nameless all-wheel drive aero-fest is gunning for the bonkers e0 PP100’s record of 8m57.1s, which would be no mean feat since the PP100 apparently used seven(!) electric motors to achieve a time almost three minutes faster than a totally stripped-out, 363kg-lighter Tesla Model S P90D.

This Is Volkswagen's New Pikes Peak Monster, And It Looks Furious

Details are scant and all we have image-wise is this teaser. It’s part of Volkswagen’s post-dieselgate drive to reshape itself as a leading producer of electric cars. Dr Frank Welsch, VW’s board member for technical development, said:

“The Pikes Peak hill climb is one of the world’s most renowned car races. It poses an enormous challenge and is therefore perfectly suited to proving the capabilities of upcoming technologies.
“Our electric racecar will be equipped with innovative battery and drive technology. The extreme stress test posed by Pikes Peak will give us important feedback that will benefit future development, and it will showcase our products and their technologies.”

For glorious Pikes Peak visuals, look no further than Ken Block’s amazing Climbkhana video.

Comments

Makes sense. EVs don’t loose power with the altitude increase.

Since EVs don’t need air which is scarce at high altitudes

What they may struggle with is air flow over the motors and batteries to keep them cool. I know the environment up there will be cooler anyway but i don’t believe that would be enough to keep the batteries and motors cool enough to work at optimum performance.