Ford Motor Co. in Dearborn made history during recent test runs at the Mount Panorama racetrack in New South Wales, Australia, with the Ford Performance SuperVan 4.2 setting a trio of lap records.
The SuperVan set the benchmark time for the quickest closed-wheel vehicle, electric vehicle, and commercial vehicle to lap the 3.9-mile racetrack.
With Romain Dumas at the helm, SuperVan 4.2 lapped Mount Panorama in a time of 1:56.3247, with a top speed of more than186 miles per hour on the Mountain and Conrod straights.
The new benchmark time from SuperVan 4.2 is a line in the sand, heralding a new era for electric vehicles, with the purpose-built demonstrator pushing the limits of EV performance during its time in Bathurst, beating an unrestricted Mercedes-AMG car in the process, says Mark Rushbrook, global director, Performance Motorsports for Ford.
“The effort and expertise it took to reset the benchmark lap time for a closed-wheel vehicle around Mount Panorama cannot be understated,” says Rushbrook. “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.”
This is the second time Dumas has broken records with SuperVan 4.2, following his record-smashing run at the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb last year.
“While both are impressive mountains in their own right, Mount Panorama and Pikes Peak couldn’t be more different in their challenges,” says Dumas. “This is the first time I have driven SuperVan 4.2 faster than 300km/h (186 mph), and we left nothing on the table as we pushed for the fastest lap possible. No one has ever driven a vehicle like SuperVan 4.2 around Mount Panorama, and certainly not this quickly.”
SuperVan 4.2 is not a traditional race car. Standing tall at roughly double the height of a GT3 race car, weighing almost 4,000 pounds. SuperVan 4.2 now will be transported to the Ford Proving Ground in Victoria, Australia, before its appearances at the Adelaide Motorsport Festival and Rolex Formula 1 Australian Grand Prix.
