The insane Ford SuperVan 4.2 has set a new lap record in Australia’s Mount Panorama with Romain Dumas behind the wheel.
Ford brought the SuperVan 4.2 at the Bathurst 500 Supercars event over the weekend. Following the race’s qualifying session, Dumas hit the track for a hot lap. Impressively, he clocked a lap time of 1:56.3247, establishing a new closed-wheel vehicle record at the circuit. This achievement surpassed the pole time of the Supercars event by over 10 seconds. Additionally, Dumas narrowly outpaced a record set a week earlier by a modified Mercedes-AMG GT3.
Read: Ford’s Monstrous SuperVan 4.2 Is Heading To The Australian F1 Grand Prix
“The effort and expertise it took to reset the benchmark lap time for a closed-wheel vehicle around Mount Panorama cannot be understated,” global director of Ford Performance Motorsports Mark Rushbrook said after the record run.
“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,” he added.
The quickest car to ever lap Mount Panorama is a McLaren MP4-23 Formula One racer that was driven by Jenson Button in 2011 as part of a demonstration run. It set a time of 1:48.88.
The SuperVan 4.2 is unlike anything else to lap Australia’s most famous racetrack. While it weighs over 1,800 kg or about 3,970 lbs, it is powered by three electric motors with a combined 1,400 hp. The radical exterior design also allows it to produce 4,400 lbs (1,995 kg) of downforce at 150 mph (242 km/h). Dumas drove the ultimate Ford at last year’s Pikes Peak International Hill Climb and almost claimed outright victory, setting a time of 8:47.682.
“While both are impressive mountains in their own right, Mount Panorama and Pikes Peak couldn’t be more different in their challenges,” Dumas said after his Australian run. “This is the first time I have driven SuperVan 4.2 faster than 300km/h, 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!”