The Porsche Taycan set a new mark recognized by Guinness World Records on Monday for the longest drift with an electric vehicle. Completed at the Porsche Experience Center at Germany’s Hockenheimring, instructor Dennis Retera held a drift in a rear-wheel-drive Taycan for 55 minutes, covering 26.2 miles at an average speed of 28.6 mph.
The rear-wheel-drive Taycan is not currently on sale in most countries, so the car Porsche used for this record was a Chinese-spec model. The roadworthiness of the RWD Taycan was verified by Denise Ritzmann from European vehicle inspection company Dekra, herself a former drift champion.
Guinness World Records judge Joanne Brent officially certified the attempt, which took place on the PEC’s wet skid pad. “GPS and yaw rate sensors within the vehicle were used for documentation purposes, as was a camera installed on the roof of the track’s control tower, with which the record ride was filmed,” Porsche said in a statement.
Impressive as this is, it’s sort of a hollow victory. According to the Guinness World Records website, there is no current record for the longest drift with an electric vehicle, so the Taycan earns this honor simply because it’s the first to try. But again, this is still a pretty great feat. I struggled like hell to get an all-wheel-drive Taycan to drift for even 30 seconds during my recent stint at the Porsche Experience Center in Los Angeles, let alone holding a slide for nearly an hour. Of course, the technique for drifting the AWD Taycan is different from that of the RWD Taycan, but that just makes me want to hit the skid pad in one of these Chinese-spec cars for some tail-out fun.
The Taycan Turbo S hits the track at Porsche’s Experience Center
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Source: Electric - cnet.com