Chris Harris Drives The Bonkers Volkswagen I.D. R Around A Track And Loves It

If you’re into EVs then you’ve probably seen a heck of a lot of the mad Volkswagen I.D. R no-limits racing car. Its creation was the manufacturer flexing, showing what it can do with electric power, and even a few years after its creation, it still doesn’t cease to wow people with its performance.

The most recent to be wowed by it is the only part of Top Gear that’s still good these days, keen driver Chris Harris. He is the kind of person for whom the driving experience that cars provide is key, and this includes the gargling, burbling soundtrack provided by a big gasoline-burning engine.

However, he is starting to see the light with the recent crop of really good EVs. He drove the Porsche Taycan back in February and became an instant fan of that car, but now the I.D. R has won him over completely and irreversibly - he calls it ‘ a whole new division of fast ‘ and with its claimed figures, it’s hard to argue against that.

See also

Volkswagen ID.3 Total Cost Of Ownership To Be Lower Than ICE

The I.D. R is, after all, a vehicle that can sprint to sixty in two seconds, it has aero to keep it glued to the track and sticky rubber to allow it to deploy all its 671 horsepower and 649 Nm (479 pound-feet). That power figure may not sound especially impressive by modern high-performance EV standards - it’s about as much as a Porsche Taycan Turbo S - but the I.D. R weighs quite a bit less than half what the Porsche does.

This very well made video, part of a Top Gear episode, makes us eagerly anticipate the next incarnation of this car, which VW has announced will be called the I.D. R Evo. Naturally, it will be faster and better than the current I.D. R in every way, since VW wants it to beat as many time attack records as possible.