Romain Dumas drove Ford's Super Mustang Mach-E to an 8:18.202 at the 104th Pikes Peak International Hill Climb. With that, Dumas has been crowned King of the Mountain six times over and given Ford its second overall win at Pikes Peak. The Race to the Clouds climbs 12.42 miles to a 14,115-foot summit where thin air steadily robs a gas engine of the oxygen it needs to make power.
Ford
Electric motors don't have that problem; they have the same power at the top as at the bottom, which is why EVs have been quietly taking over this mountain for years. Romain Dumas made the point first in 2018, driving Volkswagen's ID.R to a 7:57.148 and the first sub-eight-minute run in the event's history.
1,400 Horsepower and More Downforce Than Ford Has Ever Seen
Ford's Super Mustang Mach-E is, in name, a Mach-E. In practice, it's a three-motor, 1,400-horsepower all-electric racing machine that generates up to 12,000 pounds of downforce — the most ever recorded in Ford's rolling road wind tunnel. It shares roughly as much with the production Mach-E as a Cadillac Formula 1 car shares with its most powerful Blackwing.
Ford
For context, Chevrolet also showed up with something extraordinary. JR Hildebrand piloted the 1,250-horsepower hybrid ZR1X, powered by a 5.5-litre twin-turbo V8 paired with a front electric motor, to a 9:30.104 that demolished the production car record by over 23 seconds. Even though it was a remarkable run, it still lost to the Mach-E by more than a minute.
The Third Fastest Time Ever Is More Significant Than It Sounds
To understand where Ford’s 8:18.202 timing stands, it helps to look at the wider picture. The production EV car record still belongs to a Tesla Model 3 that ran an 11:02 in 2020. The Hyundai Ioniq 5N got the production EV crossover record down to 10:49 in 2024. The Super Mustang Mach-E, while far from a production EV, ran 8:18.
Ford
The outright record still belongs to Dumas himself from his 2018 VW ID.R run, and even that benchmark was only about 21 seconds quicker than what the Ford managed here. The absolute second fastest time in the history of the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb is 8:13.878, set by rally legend Sébastien Loeb in 2013 driving the Peugeot 208 T16. That Loeb’s record has stood for well over a decade is a testament to the feat, but it’s only a matter of time before EVs round off the podium at Pikes Peak.
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