Electric van shatters Bathurst lap record – here's what it beat

A souped-up electric Ford Transit van has produced a shock lap time, becoming one of the fastest vehicles to ever go around the iconic Mount Panorama circuit in Bathurst.

In demonstration sessions during the past weekend’s Bathurst 500 Supercars race, the Ford E-Transit Custom SuperVan 4.2 set a blistering time of one minute and 56.325 seconds – becoming the fastest vehicle with a roof to lap the famous 6.213-kilometre race track.

The stunning time bested the fastest Supercars lap of the weekend – a 2:05.322, set by Broc Feeney during Sunday qualifying – by almost nine seconds, while pipping the closed-roof record set a week prior by an unrestricted Mercedes-AMG GT3 car by just three-tenths of a second.

However, it was unable to eclipse the Bathurst lap record, which was set in 2011 by former Formula One champion Jenson Button, who drove a 2008 McLaren MP4-23 F1 car around the mountain in a time of 1:48.88 – though it remains unofficial as it was not set in a competition session.

The Ford SuperVan 4.2 resembles the E-Transit Custom electric commercial vehicle, but has a bespoke chassis, wild aerodynamics and four electric motors, capable of producing up to 1040kW.

Its Australian debut was not without issue though, as previous demonstration runs at the Bathurst 12 Hour a weekend prior unearthed weaknesses in the SuperVan’s steering system.

Ford engineers who were working at Rally Sweden last weekend were able to diagnose the fault and order new parts from Austria and Japan to be sent to Australia, where a new steering system was fabricated on the Gold Coast by Supercars team Dick Johnson Racing.

While the parts arrived in the middle of last week, the team didn’t have the necessary tools to install them at the circuit, instead taking the SuperVan to Bathurst business Yubute Fabrication to complete the final stages of assembly after hours – for which they were partially compensated with a case of beer.

The SuperVan’s driver – French ace Romain Dumas, who has two outright 24 Hours of Le Mans victories to his name – came within one tenth of breaking the Mercedes-AMG GT3’s lap record on Sunday morning, before ultimately being given extra track time after the Supercars Top Ten Shootout to have one final crack at the record.

It’s not known how many laps the Ford SuperVan could have completed at full power, though as with many other wild demonstration vehicles, it achieved its purpose by unleashing its one-lap speed.

The Ford SuperVan will also be on display and making show runs at the upcoming Adelaide Motorsport Festival – due to run from March 16 to 17 – and the Formula One Australian Grand Prix the following week.

Bathurst lap records

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