A few months ago, Lordstown Motors took the chassis powertrain of an Endurance pickup truck, threw a roll cage on it, and made some fun promo videos showing off the design tackling some rough driving. Things have escalated since then, as the company has now announced that it will be entering a revised version of the that barebones electric truck in the San Felipe 250, a SCORE International Baja race down in Mexico.
This should be interesting for a variety of reasons. The company hopes to be the first electric vehicle manufacturer to complete the race. And that should be a bit of a challenge, because the estimated range of the Endurance is 250 miles. The length of the race, a single loop, will be 290 miles, and that’s 290 rough miles driven with a healthy pace. So in addition to proving the durability of the platform, Lordstown will need to strategize and make time for a charging stop.
Then again, we suppose they could add a little battery capacity for the race, since it won’t be a straight production truck. We’ll have to wait for the company to reveal more details, as a representative told us they’re still putting together the race vehicle. This is also why you only see the early skateboard truck at the top of this post.
The race will run on April 17, 2021. It was delayed from 2020 because of the pandemic. We should see the finished truck and have information on the race strategy sometime before then. We’re expecting something like a buggy tube-frame atop the Endurance ladder frame. It will still use the same powertrain consisting of hub motors for each wheel making a claimed 600 horsepower.
Link to original article on Autoblog.com