5 Amazing World Records You’ll Be Car-azy About
Most, if not all, of us reading this would have heard of the Guinness Book of World Records. Just thinking about that today made me wonder, what are some of the most amazing things that people have done with cars? So without further ado, here we go!
1. Fastest Land Speed by Car
In car that looks closer to a rocket than an automobile (It’s got 2 jet engines), Andy Green, a pilot with the British Royal Air Force, holds the world record for the world’s fastest average speed. Back in 1997, in the ThrustSSC (Supersonic Car), at the Black Rock Desert in Nevada, Green clocked in at 763.035 miles per hour on average down and back a measured mile. For my friends who use metric, that’s a cool 1227.986 kilometers an hour. Green also holds the record for being the first person who broke the sound barrier on land.
In an interview with Forbes in 2017, Green unveiled plans to break his own record using the 135,000 horsepower BloodhoundSSC to hit over 1000 miles per hour in a location in South Africa. We’ll have to wait to see this one!
2. Longest Distance Driven While Doing A Side Wheelie
Source: http://michelestuntman.blog.tiscali.it/files/2015/11/Punto-1.jpg
Michele Pilia, a stuntman by profession, holds the world record for the longest distance driven with car on two wheels. In 2009, he drove a modified car on two wheels for 230.57 miles. Again, in metric, that means he drove a car on two wheels for a distance of 371.067 kilometers. If you’re interested, there’s a video that you can check out: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xV0ogD1pGcs
3. Longest Drift by Car
Source: https://www.topgear.com/sites/default/files/styles/16x9_1280w/public/news/image/2015/04/Large%20Image_10361.jpg?itok=RsXZqKwi
In 2014, Harald Müller, in a Toyota GT86, set a new world record for the longest drift in the world in Samsun, Turkey. Going around a 235.5 meter course, he clocked in a whopping 612 laps measuring a distance of 89.55 miles or 144.126 kilometer drift in just under 2.5 hours. Even more impressive for me is how he managed not to get bored after the first hour or so.
4. Fastest Drift in the World
We’ve seen the longest, now we’re going for the fastest. In 2016, Masato Kawabata used a specially-tuned Nissan GT-R Nismo to blow the previous world record out of the water by almost a 100km/h difference. Kawabata’s record? He managed to drift going at a speed of 304.96 km/h as verified by the Guinness Book of World Records. For comparison, the previous world record was held by Jakub Przygonski going at a sweet 217.973 km/h.
5. Tightest Parallel Parking
We’re going to bring home the world records by ending with a parking record. In 2015, Alastair Moffatt reclaimed the record from Han Yue, successfully sliding his Fiat 500CC 1.2 Cult into a space just 7.5cm longer than the car. 7.5cm. Wow. For comparison, Han Yue’s previous record was parking in a space just 8cm longer than his car.
And that’s it! There are many other incredible world records, but here were some that just blew my mind.