THE 2024 PIKES PEAK INTERNATIONAL HILLCLIMB WINNER IS THE FORD F-150 LIGHTNING EV DEMONSTRATOR!
The more we see the performance results of electric vehicles, the more the realisation sets in that ICE cars have a limited time left on this planet. One of the biggest issues we see from the online complaints about EVs is that they have no soul compared to their petrol-fed counterparts, but we think that the soul they’re talking about is more linked to the soundtrack than anything else. For some reason, those who like speed and power and driving fast think it can only be done with pistons, rotors, spark plugs and an exhaust screaming and popping and farting. For others, the power and performance offered up by an electric motor setup is all they need to make them happy. They’re so good that we reckon by the end of 2025 there won’t be any track records around the world still owned by fossil fuel-powered vehicles. Just about every other week we see some manufacturer take their flagship EV to some racetrack for testing and by day’s end, they will have set a new track record. It’s the same for most of the biggest motorsport events around the world. Take the annual Goodwood Festival of Speed, the McMurtry fan car competed in 2022 and shattered the record held by an ICE car, by a huge margin too. It’s no different at the world-famous Pikes Peak International Hillclimb. Back in 2018 one of the first proper electric racecars was entered and it absolutely obliterated the competition. The record was achieved with the purpose-built Volkswagen I.D R and was set by French racing driver Romain Dumas. At the time, the fastest EV up the hill was a Latvian car driven by PPIHC stalwart Rhys Millen with a time of 8:57.118, and the fastest ICE car was a Peugeot 208 T16 Pikes Peak Special driven by rally legend Sébastien Loeb to a time of 8:13.878. Dumas took the VW to the top in just 7:57.148. Record convincingly shattered. In 2023, Dumas piloted the awesome Ford Supervan 4.2 up the hill, and he took the class and overall win with a time of 8:47.682. Dumas is like the EV Whisperer, and with that in mind, Ford commissioned him again for the 2024 race to take the bonkers F-150 Lightning SuperTruck Demonstrator up to the clouds.
The all-new and awesome-looking Demonstrator is based on an F-150 Lightning that was once again developed in partnership with STARD Advanced R&D➕Motorsport. The racecar uses the new Ford F-150 Lightning Switchgear but has had the usual race-prep to give it an enhanced suspension, carbon composite panels, skid plates and aero capable of affording the Demonstrator more than 2.7 tons of downforce at 240 km/h. The motor setup uses a 131.0-kW/hr battery pack from Ford’s extended-range model, and the motors are rated at a healthy 433 kW of power with a typically high EV torque figure of 1,050 Nm. For Pikes Peak, there were three STARD UHP 6-phase motors and ultra-high performance Li-Polymer NMC cells that were turned up to over 1,000 kW (over 1400 hp). We expected Dumas to do well in the new Ford EV, not just because he has extensive EV experience, but because he’s just that good in any car, and he’d won the event four times before. The man didn’t disappoint, he did what Ford paid him to do and he took the class win as well as the overall win in the F-150 Lightning SuperTruck Demonstrator with another fantastic time of 8:53.553. Now that time is slower than the one set in Supervan 4.2 last year, but when you factor in that during the run, an issue with the car meant it needed to be shut down and restarted and it still went on to be the fastest time up the hill in 2024, its actually amazing. The race to the clouds will likely never have another winning run from a petrol-fed car, but do yourself a favour and watch Dumas race up the hill and then tell me the EV has no soul. It’s there, it’s just quiet.
Take a look at the YouTube video from the crew at Pikes Peak as they recap Romain's stellar performance on the famed hill, a performance that set yet another record: Romain Dumas Becomes the PPIHC 2024 King of the Mountain | PIKES PEAK WINNING Race Day Onboard | Pikes Peak International Hill Climb
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