Anything can be turned into a world record these days, and you don’t have to look far to see where that’s happening. Mercedes-Benz just reclaimed the fastest luxury car and fastest production car at the Nurburgring titles a few days ago. Last month, the SSC Tuatara wrestled the fastest car in the world title from the Koenigsegg Agera RS, albeit in a controversial fashion. There’s a world record for every automaker these days, including Porsche, which set the Guinness World record for longest drift by an electric car with the Taycan, going sideways for 26 straight miles with an average speed of 29 mph. Even with all these records popping up, it’s hard to deny that the achievement was impressive, especially when you consider that driver Dennis Retera had to sustain the drift for almost an hour.
What’s so special about this record?
Answering that question is tricky because a lot of what makes this record special is in the eye of the beholder.
On the one hand, Porsche driver Dennis Retera deserves a lot of credit for setting the record for longest drift by an electric car.
It took Retera 55 minutes to claim the record, averaging 29 mph in the process. When you look at the numbers, it’s incredible that Retera managed to maintain peak levels of concentration for almost an hour, especially when he only had a 200-meter (656-foot) skidpad to work on. Porsche kept the skidpad wet for the duration of the Retera’s drift, but there still wasn’t consistent grip to make the drift easier. On that end, the record looks all sorts of impressive given the physical and mental challenges that came into setting it.
On the other hand, the record attempt is another example of the growing infatuation among automakers to claim world records, throwing the phrase “world record” around like a sack of potatoes. Everything is being turned into a “record” these days to the extent that owning a world record that really matters is losing its prestige. What Retera accomplished is impressive. There’s no doubting that. But at the end of the day, it’s a record for longest continuous drift by an electric car, which doesn’t sound all that prestigious, let alone interesting, to begin with.
Now, if the Taycan managed to beat the existing record of longest continuous drift that was set by BMW Performance Driving School instructor Johan Schwartz and his BMW M5 F90, that would be something that we can really say is a record worth beating. Mind you, Schwartz drifted without stopping for eight hours, covering 232.5 miles in the process. That attempt was so nuts that the M5 was fuelled up five times as it was drifting, requiring a second BMW model to drift with the M5 as it was getting gas.