Designed to tackle the mighty Pike's Peak hillclimb in Colorado, VW's ID-R prototype is an all electric prototype racer. The electric power means that it wouldn't suffer the power dropping off that combustion engines do as the altitude increases and it proved to be a successful design. Here we see the car as it appeared at the press launch. The Pike's Peak race version is coming soon. SPKPP018....

Austrian Success Story  
In 1966 Kurt Bergmann entered the new racing series “Formula Vee” with his Austrian racing team Kaimann. In the very same year the Austrian set two single-seater racing cars on its wheels. Powered by a Volkswagen 1200 cc engine with 45 hp performance, the racecars accelerated to a top speed of about 160 km/h. The Kaimann racing team established itself on the scene straight away. For the 1968 racing season the team improved its car with a modified tubular frame and named it “MK III”. According to Formula Vee regulations it was now allowed to use the Volkswagen 1300 cc engine. With additional tuning, the engine performance was brought up to 60 hp. In this season the single-seater racing cars of the Formula Vee series reached a top speed of up to 180 km/h.   In the 1969 series Kurt Bergmann relied on the talent of the young Viennese Niki Lauda, who was only 20 years old. In the previous year Lauda made his racing debut in a Mini-Cooper and raced straight to 2nd place in his first hill climb race. Lauda and Erich Breinsberg formed the team, which competed for Kaimann in the 1969 racing season. With his wins in Monza and Sopron and several 2nd places, the talented youngster showed that he got along perfectly with his car and proved his skills. Among insiders the multiply affixed number 7 became the Rookie’s distinctive mark. But in the end it was not enough to win his first championship title. The title went to his teammate Erich Breinsberg. Lauda finished third overall; quite a successful year for the Kaimann racing team.   In 1970 Lauda left the Kaimann racing team and moved to the French racing series Formula Three. One year later he went up to the Formula Two series and finally to the highest class of single-seater auto racing. With his Formula One titles in 1975, 1977 and 1984 the Austrian went down forever in the history of motorsports.....