The Volkswagen Group has produced two electrified Le Mans-type racers in recent months. Both were made for the sole purpose of setting records, and both will be at Goodwood this week – but only one will be gunning for the hillclimb record.

That would be the all-electric VW I.D. R Pikes Peak that just conquered the Race to the Clouds in Colorado. But the hybrid Porsche 919 Evo will be sitting it out.

Not that it didn’t have the chance. Apparently Porsche GB had asked the home office to pursue the record, which was set at 41.6 seconds, way back in 1999 by Nick Heidfeld in a McLaren MP4/13 grand-prix racer. The idea would have been to unleash the 919 – a modified version of Weissach’s three-time LMP1 winner – on the closed circuit ahead of the Festival of Speed. But the tribute team declined.

“There was a request from Porsche GB to go for a time attack before the Festival of Speed, but it is not what we wanted to do,” a spokesman for Porsche Motorsport told Motorsport, explaining that the 919 Evo project is “not about setting as many records as possible.”

Another spokesman for Porsche GB told the same publication that it was “a logical question to ask,” but was “never pursued, at least not assiduously.”

To date, the 919 Evo has set the outright lap records at both Spa and the Nürburgring, beating Lewis Hamilton’s 2017 qualifying time at the former in April, and its own record (set 35 years prior) at the latter just last month.

While it won’t be undertaking maximum attack up the hill, the 919 Evo will be on hand to wow the crowds at Goodwood this week. Meanwhile the VW I.D. R will be pursuing the electric record, set by Drayson’s Lola B12/69 EV at 47.34 seconds. But if it manages to beat Heidfeld and McLaren’s time in the process, all the better.

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