Volkswagen ID.R Nurburgring lap record deep dive: VW releases the data

Volkswagen handily beat the original electric car record at the Nurburgring a couple months back, but now the Germans have released some numbers to further break down the lap. The ID.R completed the circuit in just 6:05.336 — you can watch the video above.

On that lap, it consumed 24.7 kWh of energy, which Volkswagen says is a quarter of the energy that a GT3 racecar consumes during one lap of the famed 12.9-mile race track. Doing some math, that puts the racing efficiency of the ID.R at 0.52 miles/kWh. For comparison, a Tesla Model X can achieve just about 3 miles/kWh. Obviously, the VW racecar prioritizes speed over everything in this situation. A normal electric car is about 5-6 times more efficient in regular driving versus the ID.R in full attack.

Another interesting statistic VW showed us relates to the forces Romain Dumas is subjected to in the ID.R. Volkswagen’s data say that the car experienced a maximum G force of 3.49 g, while also regularly recording above 3 g throughout the lap. To put that into perspective, your head goes from an 11 pound weight on your neck to a 44 pound weight when this amount of force is exerted on it. Dumas, like any other racecar driver, must perform exercises to keep his neck muscles in shape to handle that amount of force. “To simulate that kind of situation, I have fitted an old helmet with weights. I use it to train my neck muscles in my fitness corner in the basement of my house,” Dumas says.

Volkswagen says Dumas hit a top speed of 169.6 mph during the lap, which is remarkably slow for how fast the lap time was. That just to show how high the cornering limits are and how quickly the ID.R is able to accelerate out of those slower corners. Similar to Formula 1, the ID.R uses a drag-reduction system. Dumas activates it in the car manually, which opens a flap in the wing, allowing for less drag and a higher top speed. VW says the flap was open for 24.3 percent of the lap, or 88.82 seconds.