American manufacturer Ford has chosen a rather original way to promote its electric vehicles: enter a highly modified minivan in the legendary Pikes Peak hill climb.
Last weekend, the Ford SuperVan 4.2 tamed this demanding and perilous 19.9 km course carved into a Colorado mountain. Composed of 156 bends, it rises gradually from 1440 m to 4302 m in altitude, sometimes causing sudden changes in conditions.
This SuperVan has two electric motors – one per axle for traction – producing a total of 1400 hp. This configuration eliminates the power loss of combustion engines at altitude. Engineers gave it a molded dress to generate up to 1996 kg of downforce at 241 km/h, another challenge due to the density of the air which decreases while climbing. Fascinating and very crazy!
