It’s only been a short time since the Renault Megane RS 265 Trophy’s official launch and it has already added a very impressive achievement to its record; it established an amazing Nurburgring lap record for a front-wheel drive vehicle with a time of 8 minutes 7.97 seconds. The previous record was held by the Megane Renaultsport R26.R which completed the lap in 8 minutes and 17 seconds on June 23, 2008.
The time posted at the Nürburgring puts the Mégane Renaultsport 265 Trophy on a completely new level of performance that allows the vehicle to be put alongside supercars with power outputs at or greater than 500 HP. This was done with an extra 14.7 HP (11kW) on tap, careful set-up work, and specific Bridgestone RE 050A (235/35 R19) tyres chosen by RenaultSport engineers. These things, plus the vehicle’s "carefully-tuned Cup chassis, the dampers, the fade-resistant brakes, the Recaro seats, the power of the 265hp engine, the ready availability of torque between 2,500 and 5,000rpm" is what development driver, Laurent Hurgon says helped achieve the new record.
In Hurgon’s words: "The Nordschleife is a legendary course. Its length and layout, which is very different to that of a conventional circuit, make it a unique and technically demanding challenge. Its difficulties are extremely varied, ranging from fast and even very fast in places to much twistier and slower portions. Turns like ‘Karusell’ and ‘Pflanzgarten’, for example, make huge demands of the car and driver alike, yet Megane Renaultsport Trophy is very much in its element here and feels particularly reassuring despite the uncompromising nature of the terrain."
One thing we ought to know about world records is that at some point in time, somebody’s going to beat them. It may not happen for a while, but sooner or later, there’s going to be someone - or something - that will eclipse it.
Currently, the record for the world’s longest drift sits on the mantle of Vaughn Gittin Jr’s study. The drift champion set the record back in December 18, 2008 with a run of 1,914.15 m (6,280.01 ft) at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway in Las Vegas. It’s said that Gittin Jr. could have done longer had the threads on his tires not gotten completely eviscerated.
Fast forward to today and word has it that Mercedes-Benz is planning on besting Gittin Jr.’s record. The man for the job is Mercedes demonstration driver, Mauro Calo, who not only wants to break the record the same way Gittin Jr. did when he broke the previous record of 4,137 feet, but wants to reach 10,000 feet, which is a little under two miles long.
While the task seems to be far easier said than done, Calo is confident that the record will be his after his attempt at Surrey, England while using either a Mercedes C63 or E63 AMG. Calo’s attempt will be made exceptionally more difficult considering that he plans to attempt it on a perimeter track that’s barely ’as wide as a car length’.
No timetable has been set on when this attempt will take place, but seeing as news of it is going around, we won’t be surprised if it takes place before the year ends.
Whatever the case may be, we’ll be sure to give updates when the day for the record-setting attempt draws near.
While the rest of the world enjoys a different kind of donut - one that involves a lot of glazed sugar - us gearheads only care about the kind of donut that results in burnt tires and lots of smoke.
So when we chanced upon this video of 57 cars doing a simultaneous donut in Australia, we couldn’t help but wonder whether this was some kind of world record. After carefully digging through the archives of the Guinness Book of World Records, we found out that this 57-strong exhibition of smoke-filled donut madness is in fact the record-holder for the most cars performing the same stunt simultaneously.
This public demonstration broke the previous record of 29 cars, which was set in Rendlesham, UK a little over two years ago on March 1, 2009. Less than a year later - January 23, 2010 - this 57-car simultaneous donut broke the record at the Queensland Raceway in Willowbank, Australia.
Actually, the original number for this whole meet was supposed to be 66 cars, but nine cars were left out from the final tally because they couldn’t perform donuts for the required time of 10 seconds.
Either way, a record’s a record at the end of the day. And even if 66 wasn’t the final number, 57 is still a pretty awesome sight to behold.
Check out the 29-car simultaneous donut in the UK after the jump.
The Isle of Man’s 37.75-mile, 200-turn Mountain Race Circuit is one of those tracks that test a person’s endurance over a pretty long distance. It’s a little more than two-and-a-half times the length of the Nurburgring so you can expect it to be as daunting as any race track in the world, even for the standards of superbikes that race in the circuit every year.
That’s why we found it surprising to find out that a Subaru Impreza WRX STI broke the lap record for a four-wheeled vehicle in the track after the record stood for 21 years.
Driven by former British Rally champion and WRC veteran Mark Higgins, the Impreza WRX STI clocked an impressive - by its standards – time of just under 20 minutes, with an average lap speed of 115.356 MPH, breaking the previous lap record by more than two minutes. Late rally veteran Tony Pond set the previous record back in 1990 while driving a Rover 827 Vitesse.
Congratulations to both Subaru and Mark Higgins for the new record and here’s to hoping that we won’t have to wait 21 years for this record to be broken.
UPDATE 06/23/2011: Subaru has released a 5 minute 25 second video highlighting rally driver Mark Higgins’ lap that averaged 115.356 MPH. Towards the end of the video, Higgins tells the tale of when he lost and then regained control of the Subaru.
Hit the jump for details on the Subaru WRX STI Isle of Man and to see what Higgins has to say about the record breaking lap.
UPDATE 11/07/2011: The WRX STI Isle of Man TT Mark Higgins has been displayed at this year’s SEMA Show and this was the perfect opportunity for us to give you some live pictures of the car. We hope you will enjoy them. Check the picture gallery to see them.
Remote-controlled cars - R/Cs for short - are one of those toys that never get old for us car-loving wackos. For a man like Nic Case - not to be confused for Nic Cage - R/C cars are more than just toys; they’re a calling.
The man’s obsession with these cars is no more evident than in his continued attempt to build the fastest and most powerful car in the world. A few years ago, Case and his very own Schumacher Mi3 set the world record for being the fastest remote-controlled car on the planet, doing so after posting a staggering top speed of 161.76 mph.
The Schumacher Mi3, a rocket-looking, streamlined bullet, took Case six months to build where he spent over $4,000 to pay for all the components. After all the work put in, the record-holding R/C car was outiftted with a handcrafted carbon-fiber chassis while being powered by an 11-horsepower motor and a 12-cell battery pack.
As a man that never seems to be satisfied, Nic Case has his eyes set on building an R/C car that could hit 200 mph and is in the middle of building and developing his latest project, called the "Streamliner". If and when the "Streamliner" is built, we’re pretty confident that this existing record will completely fall by the wayside. For now, though, the Schumacher Mi3 sits as the fastest R/C car in the world.
