Volkswagen Car Racing Cars

With a history of six years, the Rebelle Rally is a competition for women, but is nowhere near an easy one. A pair consisting of a driver and a navigator need to use their skills, navigation tools, and limited supplies across 1,400 miles through the deserts of Nevada and California.

And, this year’s competition will see the entry of the Volkswagen ID.4 AWD Pro electric SUV. It will be driven by Mercedes Lilienthal, with Emily Winslow being the navigator. The competition will take place from October 7–16, 2021.

It’s always interesting to see how different engine layouts compare to one another. It’s even more interesting when a high-performance SUV goes up against some of the best compact sports cars and a capable hot hatchback. This is exactly the case with this drag race from Carwow, where a Lamborghini Urus is being challenged by a Porsche Cayman GT4, Audi TT RS, and a Volkswagen Golf R.

While we’re waiting to see how the Golf 8 GTI really is like, let’s take a moment and appreciate this unique, Golf 7 GTE called the GTE HyRacer. Developed by the members of a Volkswagen Retail Group Germany apprenticeship program, this is the latest in a rather long line of interesting one-off builds and it was supposed to take center stage at the annual Worthersee show in Austria. Sadly, the show’s been canceled due to the pandemic but not the project which did get completed and now we can share with you the result, a stunning prototype that one-ups even the Golf 8 GTI in terms of power.

Volkswagen continues to impress us with its I.D. R race car, the moving technology lab of the giant from Wolfsburg, one that’s been created to break records and, in the process, prove to the world that Volkswagen’s EVs will knock everybody out of the park. Last weekend, during the 2019 Goodwood Festival of Speed Romain Dumas driving a revised version of the I.D. R did just that, making every other car that has ever run on Lord March’s Hillclimb course seem pedestrian as he smashed the all-time record set 20 years ago in a full-blown Formula 1 car.

There are still many that will never bring themselves to even accept electric cars as the way forward, let alone try and like them. While this is true, it’s also true that cars like Volkswagen’s I.D. R are surely turning heads among even the most hardcore fans of the old-school internal combustion engine. This car has, in the space of little over 12 months, smashed the all-time record at the Pikes Peak International Hillclimb and then did the same around the Nurburgring-Nordschleife with a time fast enough to make it the second fastest car around that track ever. That it also broke the EV record at Goodwood last year seems almost moot given what Dumas did this year with the car.

Volkswagen’s bespoke electric prototype racer that was the fastest at last year’s Pikes Peak International Hill Climb event will most likely add another record to its cabinet. Romain Dumas will pilot it in September on the so-called "Road to Heaven" that features 99 bends along 6.83 miles of road, longer than the original Spa-Francorchamps road course.

This year, Volkswagen will finally introduce the first model from its much-advertised I.D. family of electric models that are supposed to make us all rethink our lives, ponder on existence as a whole and so on and so forth. To keep the ball rolling and the buzz going, Volkswagen is yet to park the glorious LMP-like I.D. R in a museum and, instead, it will take the 670 horsepower beast all the way to China to compete on a strip of road that’s not opened to the public.

Records are meant to be broken, right? Well, the outright lap record at the Nurburgring stood for over three decades before Porsche came back to better it this summer. Now, it seems that the record might fall again, sooner than anyone expected, and in the hands of Volkswagen no less. The German manufacturer plans to obliterate the existing record for electric cars with the already impressive I.D.R., but there might be enough juice in the electric prototype to top the overall leaderboard in the process.

The outright record around the northern loop of the Nurburgring was something of a staple in motorsport. For over 30 years, the 6:11.130 lap time set by Germany’s Stefan Bellof was unbeaten. That is, until this summer when Porsche brought their 919 on steroids and, with Timo Bernhard behind the wheel, sliced the fastest lap time by almost a minute. It seems, now, that the new record won’t last for other three-and-a-half decades as the car that proved untouchable at this year’s Pikes Peak International Hillclimb event will take on the Nurburgring next May.

As one of the most astounding racing cars in the world, the electric Volkswagen ID R seems to be gunning for the Nurburgring Lap Record. Sources close to the company reported that Volkswagen actually booked the track for May next year. We suspect it will try to send the slightly retuned electric ID R to that very track in order to slash the electric car record and take the scalp off the Nio EP9. That one managed to lap the Green Hell in 6 minutes 45.9 seconds. It is, obviously, a really fast car. Yet, considering the blistering Volkswagen ID R hill climb run at Pikes Peak where it smashed the previous record by 15 seconds and managed to finish the course in 7min 57.148 seconds, I can only imagine it will do the same at Nurburgring.

This summer, Volkswagen conquered the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb race with their fantastic I.D. R prototype, which was driven by Romain Dumas up the mountain in a record time of 7:57.148, 16 seconds under Sebastien Loeb’s 5-year-old record.

Motorsport is still a relevant marketing tool and battle-scarred Volkswagen decided the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb is the perfect place to showcase its electric technology. The race, which has been going since 1916, sees competitors climb up the 12.42-mile-long course all the way to 14,000 feet. Nowadays, there’s no more dirt at Pikes Peak, but that doesn’t make the challenge itself any less daunting.

In case you hadn’t heard, Volkswagen is pivoting to a greener, more eco-friendly approach to building its cars, offering up plans to produce a host of new all-electric models over the next several years. Spearheading this new direction is a range of vehicles dubbed the I.D. family, which includes concepts like the Buzz minivan and Crozz four-door crossover. However, doesn’t think the I.D. range will be the death of go-fast VW’s - quite the opposite, in fact, as VW is also prepping a little something labeled I.D. for the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb in Colorado this June. It’s called the I.D. R, and it’s the company’s first-ever all-electric race car, purpose-built to tackle the Race to the Clouds. If ever there was a worthwhile application of VW’s EV tech, this is it. Mind the wing.

Update 08/27/2018: We just came back from Monterey Car Week 2018 and can’t wait to share the images we took of the Volkswagen I.D. R Pike Peak racer. If you thought it looked cool before, check it out up close and personal in our gallery at the bottom of this page!

Established in 2015, the TCR series has become increasingly popular with each season, now being contested by several automakers from Europe and Asia. Volkswagen is one of them, having joined the series with a race-spec version of the Golf GTI in 2016. Following the first full season, in which the Golf GTI TCR won 17 races and two championships, the German firm made improvements to the car in order to continue its good run.

The hatchback’s aerodynamics were updated, while the technology under the hood has also been fine-tuned. The updated car was again used by Liqui Moly Team Engstler, which tackled the German ADAC TCR, TCR Asia, and the TCR Middle East series. The revised GTI also returned to the International TCR series with Team Leopard Racing, which won the championship the previous year. Let’s find out what’s new in the review below.

Continue reading to learn more about the Volkswagen Golf GTI TCR.

Volkswagen’s all-electric I.D. R hummed its way into Pikes Peak lore after smashing the International Hillclimb’s record with a time of 7:57.148, becoming the first-ever race car to complete the 12.42-mile course in under eight minutes. The record-setting run happened over the weekend, etching the car and its driver, Romain Dumas, into the Pike Peak International Hillclimb record books.

The Pikes Peak Hill Climb is just days away, and it already looks like Volkswagen and its I.D. R Pikes Peak Racer is going to propose itself as a strong proposition, setting the fastest qualifying time thus far.

The 2018 Pikes Peak International Hill Climb is rapidly approaching, and Volkswagen will be there to challenge the standing course record with this - the I.D. R, an all-electric racer purpose-built for the job. The event is set to take place at the end of the month, but VW is already onsite in Colorado, prepping for the big day with a few test runs in an effort to sort out any lingering issues with the new racing machine. Chronicling the latest efforts is this 2-minute, 46-second teaser vid, which shows the I.D. R in action alongside an interview with its driver, Romain Dumas.

All told, the I.D. R certainly has the right specs for something like this. In addition to simply ludicrous aero, this carbon monster is powered by a dual-motor powertrain making 671 horsepower and 479 pound-feet of torque, enough to propel it to 60 mph in just 2.25 seconds.

That’s quick, but Mr. Dumas has the skills to make it work, boasting a resume that includes wins at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, 24 Hours of Nurburgring, and 12 Hours of Sebring, not to mention outright victories at Pikes Peak in 2014, 2016, and 2017.

That said, even the best driver and car in the world won’t make this a cake walk. The Pikes Peak course is highly technical and extremely dangerous, composed of 156 turns spread over 12.42 miles, rising nearly 5,000 feet. The finish line towers above the surrounding landscape at 14,110 feet above sea level, which has a profound effect on cooling and aerodynamics, not to mention the driver’s mental state.

Will VW pull it off? Tune in June 24th to find out.

The Pikes Peak International Hill Climb is an absolute monster of a challenge. Composed of 156 turns laid across 12.4 miles of narrow two-lane switchbacks, The Race to the Clouds lives up to its name by climbing some 4,720 feet, with the peak touching the sky at over 14,000 feet above sea level. As such, aero set-up is particularly tricky to work out, as the extreme high altitude conditions make wings and cooling substantially less effective, even when compared between the start and finish lines. Volkswagen is tackling the problem by testing and tuning in the wind tunnel is it preps for a run at America’s Mountain with the new I.D. R all-electric racer.

Continue reading for the full story.

The Volkswagen I.D. R Pikes Peak racer is no joke. The German automaker finally unveiled its all-electric time attack racer and, judging by the technical specifications; it looks like it’s ready to conquer the 2018 Pikes Peak International Hill Climb. The I.D. R Pikes Peak has a serious amount of power at its disposal. More importantly, all that power translates to performance abilities that make it quicker than a Formula E race car and a Formula One racer.

A few years ago Volkswagen revealed that it wants to transform itself into one of the leading producers of electric vehicles. This statement was further emphasized after the "Dieselgate" emissions scandal. Now, the German firm is making another big step toward electrification by including its racing division into these plans. Specifically, Volkswagen Motorsport is working with the company’s Technical Development center in Wolfsburg on an all-electric prototype car for next year’s Pikes Peak International Hill Climb race.

An event that has become a popular venue for carmakers and privateers experimenting with electric drivetrains, the Pikes Peak Hill Climb will see Volkswagen debut it’s most daring race car yet. And the German firm doesn’t want to join the event just for kicks; it’s also planning to set a new record for electric cars on the 12.4-mile-long course. "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," explained Dr. Frank Welsch, Member of the Board responsible for Development. Although data is still under wraps, Volkswagen released a teaser photo of the car. But more on that below.

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The motor racing world is still reeling from Audi’s decision to leave endurance racing at the conclusion of the 2016 season and now, it appears that the bad breaks aren’t over yet. Volkswagen has also announced plans to exit the World Rally Championship after the 2016 season.

The revelation is no less shocking than Audi’s departure from endurance racing, including Le Mans, because of Volkswagen’s outright dominance in the WRC ever since it entered the rally series in 2013. In fact, since it’s arrival, Volkswagen has yet to lose a driver’s or manufacturer’s title, having won both championships for four consecutive years.

But apparently, even outright dominance in the WRC is no match from the debilitating fallout of the diesel emissions scandal, which the German automaker admitted as being one of the primary reasons behind its exit from the WRC. The departure is even more upsetting when you consider that Volkswagen won’t get to line up in the same grid as Toyota, which announced its return to the world’s premier rally series in 2017.

The good news is that Volkswagen’s involvements in the WRC and rally racing altogether aren’t going to be shut down completely. The company still plans to develop new rally cars, including the new Polo rally race that’s being developed to R5 specifications. But instead of having an actual team like it has done during its short-lived, four-year dominance, the German automaker will develop these rally cars for customer teams. In addition, the company said that its involvement in the Global Rallycross program will remain intact with the possibility of the program even expanding past its current capacity.

So that’s the good news here. The bad news is that we won’t get to see Volkswagen compete in the WRC as its own team anymore, leaving behind the possibilities of what a Volkswagen-Toyota rally battle could have become.

Continue after the jump to read the full story.

Introduced for the 2013 racing season as Volkswagen’s first

spec factory car since the 1990 Golf Rally G60, the Polo R WRC went on to dominate the sport by winning three back-to-back World Rally Championships through 2015. Having dominated each and every season since it returned to WRC, Volkswagen is gunning for more success starting 2017 with a new

based racer.

Under development since summer 2015, when the FIA released the new regulations for the World Rally Car class, the 2017 Polo R WRC is previewed as a significant improvement over its predecessor. Just like any evolution out there, the new

spec compact is set to be lighter, more powerful and more aerodynamic. In other words, Ford and Hyundai have plenty of things to worry about for 2017 if they don’t shape up over the next 12 months.

Details about the next-gen Polo R WRC are still very limited, and the actual car was only shown as a rendering, but Volkswagen provided just enough information for us to have a closer look at Wolfsburg’s upcoming rally weapon. An unveiling is planned toward the end of 2016 with the official debut to take place at the Rally Monte Carlo in January 2017. Stay tuned for updates!

Continue reading to learn more about the 2017 Volkswagen Polo R WRC.