Ford’s wacky electric Supervan 4.2 sets a new lap record at Bathurst

Enlarge / The Ford Performance Supervan 4.2 has spent a couple of weeks at Mount Panorama in Bathurst, Australia. (credit: Ford)

Ford's series of Supervan demonstrators now have a long pedigree of going faster at racetracks than vans are supposed to go. The current example is Supervan 4.2, which was built to celebrate—and draw attention to—the fact that there's a fully electric version of the commercial vehicle. And its latest feat is a new unofficial lap record at Mount Panorama in Australia.

Supervan wasn't racing there—few competition events other than the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb have rules loose enough to let it enter. But the van was sent Down Under on a promotional tour that started with some demo laps before the Bathurst 12-hour sports car race, which was held a couple of weekends ago at the Mount Panorama circuit in New South Wales.

Instead of just showing up, doing some demo laps, and leaving, the Ford Performance team and Supervan decided to hang around and put on more demo laps this past weekend, when the circuit played host to a round of the Supercars championship—think Australian NASCAR.