moosehead
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- Denver, CO
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- ‘22 Ioniq 5, ‘78 Jeep Wagoneer
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Finally had a day to rip up from Denver at 5,280’ up over Berthoud Pass at 11,307’ elevation and down into Tabernash to our cabin which is roughly at 8,300’. Covered roughly 90 miles each way and a ton of elevation gains and losses.
Berthoud Pass crosses the Continental Divide and has 10+ hairpin turns plus a bunch of high speed S curves. We’ve driven it roughly 40-60 times per year both winter and summer in both a Cayenne GTS, highly modified Audi S7, and other vehicles so a great litmus test for the Rivian.
The Rivian shows her heft and height as compared to the sports cars, but otherwise is no slouch and has way more in it than I was willing to press on the first high alpine outing. I was not comfortable pushing it to breaking the rubber loose but will eventually get there. Regardless, anyone I passed was shocked to see a truck blowing by.
The rule of thumb for ICE vehicles is 3% horsepower loss for every 1k’ elevation above sea level, so we feel it in all our vehicles plus a ski boat, especially above 8k’. No such loss for EV’s so I was a bit blown away by the responsiveness in the high mountains. It took awhile to get used to one pedal driving at speed in the curves and hills but it quickly became intuitive. I just set it in Sport and rocked.
Will report some basic wattage and mileage for both climb and descent sections. Overall was thrilled with the R1T and look forward to both heavy snow driving and towing the boat up and over the same route next season.
Berthoud Pass crosses the Continental Divide and has 10+ hairpin turns plus a bunch of high speed S curves. We’ve driven it roughly 40-60 times per year both winter and summer in both a Cayenne GTS, highly modified Audi S7, and other vehicles so a great litmus test for the Rivian.
The Rivian shows her heft and height as compared to the sports cars, but otherwise is no slouch and has way more in it than I was willing to press on the first high alpine outing. I was not comfortable pushing it to breaking the rubber loose but will eventually get there. Regardless, anyone I passed was shocked to see a truck blowing by.
The rule of thumb for ICE vehicles is 3% horsepower loss for every 1k’ elevation above sea level, so we feel it in all our vehicles plus a ski boat, especially above 8k’. No such loss for EV’s so I was a bit blown away by the responsiveness in the high mountains. It took awhile to get used to one pedal driving at speed in the curves and hills but it quickly became intuitive. I just set it in Sport and rocked.
Will report some basic wattage and mileage for both climb and descent sections. Overall was thrilled with the R1T and look forward to both heavy snow driving and towing the boat up and over the same route next season.
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