Ford
Ford’s collection of Supervan demonstrators now have an extended pedigree of going quicker at racetracks than vans are presupposed to go. The present instance is Supervan 4.2, which was constructed to have fun—and draw consideration to—the truth that there is a totally electrical model of the business automobile. And its newest feat is a brand new unofficial lap document at Mount Panorama in Australia.
Supervan wasn’t racing there—few competitors occasions apart from the Pikes Peak Worldwide Hill Climb have guidelines unfastened sufficient to let it enter. However the van was despatched Down Beneath on a promotional tour that began with some demo laps earlier than the Bathurst 12-hour sports activities automotive race, which was held a few weekends in the past on the Mount Panorama circuit in New South Wales.
As an alternative of simply exhibiting up, performing some demo laps, and leaving, the Ford Efficiency group and Supervan determined to hold round and placed on extra demo laps this previous weekend, when the circuit performed host to a spherical of the Supercars championship—assume Australian NASCAR.
“For 2 weeks, the Supervan group didn’t cease engaged on making this electrical van as quick as doable,” mentioned Sriram Pakkam, Ford Efficiency’s supervisor for F1 and EV demonstrators. “The worldwide Ford Efficiency community was activated to make sure Supervan 4.2 was as succesful as doable. Nearly instantly, Mount Panorama challenged each automotive and group, however we have been capable of implement plenty of key modifications that improved our capabilities and introduced the lap instances down each session.”
When Ars acquired a brief experience in Supervan 4.2 on the launch of Ford Efficiency’s 2024 racing season, Ford CEO Jim Farley was referred to as upon to do driving duties. However for the Bathurst runs, Ford turned to Romain Dumas, who additionally pedaled Supervan up Pikes Peak for the Blue Oval.
Ford
“Whereas each are spectacular mountains in their very own proper, Mount Panorama and Pikes Peak could not be extra completely different of their challenges,” Dumas mentioned. “That is the primary time I’ve pushed Supervan 4.2 quicker than 300 km/h [186 mph], and we left nothing on the desk as we pushed for the quickest lap doable. Nobody has ever pushed a automobile like Supervan 4.2 round Mount Panorama, and definitely not this rapidly.”
Dumas drove Supervan 4.2 across the 3.8-mile (6.2-km) circuit in 1:56.3247 and set new data for an electrical automotive, a business automobile, and a closed-top automotive. For context, pole place for the 2024 Bathurst 12 Hour was 2:01.9810, set by Sheldon van der Linde in a BMW M4 GT3. Mercedes additionally introduced a demonstrator to Mount Panorama, an unrestricted model of its Mercedes-AMG GT3 race automotive. Pushed by Jules Gounon, this set a greatest time a number of tenths slower than Dumas within the EV, with a lap of 1:56.6054.
However the absolute quickest lap of all time across the monitor in all probability belongs to Jenson Button, who placed on an illustration run in 2011 with a McLaren MP4-23 System 1 automotive. In 2011, Button accomplished a lap in simply 1:48.8 seconds. (Final 12 months, Purple Bull and Liam Lawson placed on some demo laps, too, however they did not attempt to break Button’s time.)
Supervan 4.2 goes to spend slightly extra time in Australia, headed first to Ford’s proving floor in Victoria, then making appearances on the Adelaide Motorsport Competition and at last on the Australian Grand Prix in late March.
