The Ford SuperVan has thus far undergone multiple transformations, and it received a few more ahead of this year’s racing season, too. Last year, the EV demonstrator took home a win in the Pikes Peak Open Division with a time of 8:47.682, which also happened to be a new record for that class by nearly 40 seconds, and it also came in second place overall, missing out on the top spot by little over six seconds. Before it attempts to tackle that historic event yet again this coming June, the Ford SuperVan 4.2 paid a visit to Australia this past weekend, where it enjoyed even more success.
There, the Ford SuperVan competed in the Thrifty Bathurst 500 race at Mount Panorama, where driver Romain Dumas piloted the wild machine to a trio of new lap records – the best time for a closed-wheel vehicle, electric vehicle, and commercial vehicle, in fact, with a time of 1:56.3247 – all while hitting a blistering top speed of 186 miles-per-hour on the Mountain and Conrod straights.
“The effort and expertise it took to reset the benchmark lap time for a closed-wheel vehicle around Mount Panorama cannot be understated,” said Mark Rushbrook, Global Director, 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.”
Now, the Ford SuperVan 4.2 will continue its Australian tour at the Ford Proving Ground in Victoria before it makes appearances at the Adelaide Motorsport Festival and Rolex Formula 1 Australian Grand Prix, giving folks in that part of the world a chance to see the record-breaking van up close and in person.
We’ll have more on the Ford SuperVan soon, so be sure and subscribe to Ford Authority for the latest Ford Transit news and ongoing Ford news coverage.
Comments
186 MPH in a van. Just reading that puts a smile on my face. I love Ford’s freakmobile.
It looks like the Hot Wheels car on the electric track I had as a kid. Except mine would fly off the track and crash into the wall at about 10 MPH. 186 MPH is the grown up version 🙂