The Fastest Electric Car At Pikes Peak Was Sponsored By Big Oil

Everything is different in Japan. The culture, the thinking, the respect… the gas stations. Apart from having juicy 100 octane at the pumps, the Japanese gas station locations are dominated by one name – Eneos. And while Eneos might not be a household name here in the USA, its involvement in motorsports and events like SEMA has gained it a high degree of attention without much ad dollars spent. And it seems the Eneos sponsorships division knows how to reach the younger demographic too as the Big Oil company sponsored a Tesla Model 3 EV race car with Formula D drifter Dai Yoshihara at the wheel.

Yoshihara turned out to be an ideal choice for the annual Pikes Peak hill climb race since his efforts resulted in a run that ended up being the fastest EV overall up the Peak.

The over 130-year-old gasoline and lubricants company makes a variety of products and promotes the brand on Yoshihara’s drift Toyota GR86 as well. But during Pikes Peak 2022, the Japanese-American switched to this Model 3 built by tuner Evasive Motorsports, managing to clinch the fastest time with grip. The fact that Eneos manufactures motor oil, gear oil, and transmission fluid and sells millions of gallons of gasoline all for internal combustion cars is an irony that can’t be ignored.

While Eneos might be focused on selling fluids for ICE vehicles, it recently announced an entry into the EV market. Obviously, EVs don’t need motor oil changes but the company will offer a range of essential new EV fluids. Products like: EV Fluid offers low-friction gear oil for reduction gears, HV AT for transmissions inside EVs and hybrids, Motor Cool gear oil cooling with electrical insulation, and lastly a critical component to EVs – a cooling fluid aptly-named Battery Cool.

The team at Evasive Motorsports released a spec sheet of how their pioneering effort in EV racing came together to be the quickest up the hill. Far from stock, this Model 3 had plenty of carbon fiber aero, a stripped interior with Sparco racing buckets and the wheels are Titan 7 Prototype in 18×11 inch with Yokohama wet racing tires. The team credited the fastest EV time to the wet performance of the 280 mm semi-slick tires as the fog and drizzle rolled in.

“Practice and qualifying went great, which almost seemed too good to be true,” Yoshihara said of the experience. “And then coming into today [Sunday] the weather became a big factor with the rain and fog. However, we felt it could give us a real chance because our weakness is the power of the car but the Yokohama wet tires work really well.”

The team did have a Pikes Peak attempt in 2021 but the Model 3 ran into mechanical issues early on with the team vowing to be back for serious run. And they certainly delivered in 2022.

While massive multi-national manufacturer Volkswagen set the bar high at 7:57.148 in their ID.R EV racer, the Eneos car did decent running a 11:06.205 up the hill. The run was good enough to clinch 9th place overall but oddly only second in class. Since there is no dedicated EV Class yet at Pikes, the Eneos Model 3 ran in Exhibition Class won by a highly-modified 2022 Porsche 911 Turbo S Lightweight that ran a quick 10:34.053 making it second overall for the 2022 event.