What do you assume holds the closed-wheel observe document on the Mount Panorama circuit that hosts the Bathurst 500 yearly? Probably one thing that appears a bit like Aston Martin’s new GT3 racer, proper? Wrong, it’s truly an electrical panel van from these intelligent of us at Ford Performance.
The new document was set by Ford’s SuperVan 4.2, which might be a well-known identify for quick vans on the market because it additionally set a blistering time at Pikes Peak final yr.
For its newest entry into the document books, the all-electric SuperVan set the observe alight with its time of 1:56.3247. This places it sooner than the official lap document of 1:59.2910, which was set by Christopher Mies in an unrestricted Audi R8 LMS.
With Romain Dumas on the wheel, the SuperVan 4.2 now holds the document for the quickest closed-wheel car, electrical car and industrial car to lap the Australian circuit.
“The effort and expertise it took to reset the benchmark lap time for a closed-wheel vehicle around Mount Panorama cannot be understated,” stated Mark Rushbrook, international director of Ford Performance Motorsports.
“Romain Dumas worked alongside our team to innovate, learn, adapt, and the result is a time that exceeded our own expectations. There is a reason why we chose to bring SuperVan 4.2 to Mount Panorama after Pikes Peak – there is nowhere quite like it in the world.”
While from a distance, the SuperVan does look quite a bit like Ford’s common Transit Custom van, which itself is sort of tremendous. The wizards over at Ford efficiency have made a variety of adjustments to this SuperVan to get it race prepared.
Under the hood, the electrical van is powered by three STARD UHP six-phase electrical motors, which means that it now produces 1,400 horsepower. The bodywork can also be a lot lighter than a daily van, after it underwent some severe weight saving forward of its look at Pikes Peak.
Another huge change forward of the SuperVan’s run up the mountain was the brand new aero equipment you see right here, which features a large entrance splitter and a gaping rear wing on the van’s roof. This setup, Ford says, produces over 4,400 kilos of downforce at 150 miles per hour.
Now that the van has confirmed its value at Mount Panorama, it gained’t be placed on some monumental shelf to assemble mud, oh no. Instead, Ford will take it again to its workshop in Australia and prep it for its subsequent outing on the Australian Grand Prix. After that, who know what lap information are protected from the SuperVan.
Source: jalopnik.com