Monday Pit-stop #4: Why only an F1 car can beat a Transit van
Racing vans from Ford are nothing new in motorsport. The very first Ford Transit Supervan made its debut back in 1971, putting a Transit bodyshell onto GT40 running gear powered by a 5.0-litre V8. This was followed by Supervan 2 in the 1980s, with 590 horsepower, which was then converted into Supervan 3 in the 1990s.
The late Sabine Schmitz was also a star of Top Gear when she set an unofficial Nürburgring lap record for vans by making Richard Hammond sick in a standard Transit during a memorable lap of the Green Hell. The ‘Queen of the Nürburgring' proved that it's incredible what 136 horsepower can do. But now there's an electric supervan from Ford, which blows everything else out of the park with 2000 horsepower. And last week it set the (unofficial) fastest-ever lap of Bathurst, in Australia, for a closed “car”. Only a Formula 1 car has ever gone quicker.
At the wheel was Frenchman Romain Dumas: no stranger to feats of bravado thanks to his many exploits that range from Le Mans to Pikes Peak (where, you guessed it, he raced the electric Supervan to an astonishing second place overall last year).
The record Bathurst run was actually meant to have happened during the 12 Hours weekend, but the latest Supervan 4.2 (to use its full name) fell just short of the required benchmark. Some new parts were flown in to make it faster and – in a typically Australian transaction – a local Bathurst manufacturing company even helped to weld some steering components in exchange for a case of beer.
The van was ready for another tilt at the record last week and it was job done, with the new fastest Bathurst lap now standing at 1m56.8s. The insane Supervan 4.2 was run by electric experts STARD from Austria – fronted by former WRC driver Manfred Stohl – and equipped with a STARD powertrain as well as Pirelli P Zero tyres. Expect to see it again on another demonstration run at the Australian Grand Prix next month.
In other sports car news, the World Endurance Championship prologue in Qatar was moved from last weekend to later this week due to sea freight delays caused by Houthi rebels at the Suez Canal. The prologue is a chance for all the teams – including Le Mans winners Ferrari – to go testing before the series gets underway at Losail next weekend. There will now be just a two-day gap between the end of testing and the first practice session on Thursday for the Qatar 1812km: named after the country's National Day. The race will get underway on Saturday 2 March at 11am and is expected to last just under 10 hours.
