While Broc Feeney took the win for Red Bull Ampol Racing at the main event of this weekend’s Bathurst 500, the fastest lap went to an all-electric van from Ford, which broke the record for fastest closed-wheel vehicle, electric vehicle, and commercial vehicle to lap around Mount Panorama.
The Ford SuperVan 4.2 demonstrator is the latest evolution of a series of promotional vans Ford has been making since the early 70s.
The company debuted its first Ford Pro Electric SuperVan at the 2022 Goodwood Festival of Speed, while the SuperVan 4.2 made its debut in 2023 where it finished first its division at the 101st Pikes Peak International Hill Climb in Colorado.
Fast forward to this past weekend, and the SuperVan 4.2 took to Mount Panorama, one of the world’s most iconic racetracks, clocking a record lap time of 1:56.3247 – 10 seconds faster than the time set for pole by Broc Feeney in his V8 Supercar (2:06.5465).
In addition to clocking a faster lap time than the weekend’s winning driver, the SuperVan 4.2 also beat the previous closed-wheel record holder – an unrestricted V8-powered GT3 car.
“For two weeks the SuperVan team didn’t stop working on making this electric van as fast as possible,” said Sriram Pakkam, manager of Formula 1 and EV demonstrators for Ford Performance.
“The global Ford Performance network was activated to ensure SuperVan 4.2 was as capable as possible. Almost immediately Mount Panorama challenged both car and team, but we were able to implement a number of key changes that improved our capabilities and brought the lap times down every session.”
Driving the SuperVan around Mount Panorama was Romain Dumas, who also smashed the record at Pikes Peak in 2023.
“While both are impressive mountains in their own right, Mount Panorama and Pikes Peak couldn’t be more different in their challenges,” Dumas said.
“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.”
Joshua S. Hill is a Melbourne-based journalist who has been writing about climate change, clean technology, and electric vehicles for over 15 years. He has been reporting on electric vehicles and clean technologies for Renew Economy and The Driven since 2012. His preferred mode of transport is his feet.