The automotive world is like that, when we think we've seen it all… Drift is already recognized by the FIA itself with an international competition, and even here there is already an Iberian cup in the modality. But, it's also good for… Guinness records.
A few days ago we questioned here what was BMW trying to do with the new generation of the BMW M5, in addition to demonstrating that despite its new all-wheel drive xDrive, it also drifts.
The conclusive answer has now arrived. It was a double record for the famous “Guinness World Records” . In addition to the greatest drift achieved in eight o'clock , with 374 km traveled , BMW set yet another record. THE greatest double drift (two cars side by side), with 63 km covered.
Drift supplies
To achieve the feat it took five supplies, but more than the amount the challenge was to be able to supply without stopping and maintaining the drift maneuver. To make this possible, a fueling system was installed with its own nozzle, similar to the one used in competition, with an extra tank mounted inside the trunk. For the risky maneuver worthy of a film, another BMW M5 from the previous generation (F10) was used, which joins the maneuver to fuel in full drift. Ah brave ones!
Due to the high amount of fuel being transferred from one car to another, the risk of fire was high.
The first filling was carried out after just three consecutive hours in drift, since the original total tank (68 liters) and the additional one were used. The second refueling had 3h30min to finish, the third had 3h to go through the 549 laps of the “circuit” and the fourth only 2:15h, since for these only the additional tank was used.
could have gone wrong
Naturally, not everything went as it would have been desirable and during the maneuver the two M5s touched each other several times, fortunately without consequences for the record and without serious damage to register.
In addition to the new generation BMW M5, the protagonists were the BMW Performance professional driving school instructors Johan Schwartz and Matt Mullins. The former broke its previous record from 2013 with the previous generation, traveling 82 km in drift. In addition to these, the almost juggling task to materialize the supply was in charge of Matt Butts, who several times found himself “wetched” between the two saloons.
Thus, BMW simply annihilated the previous Toyota GT86 records in July 2014 with 144 km and June 2017 with 165 km.
Of course, the feat was possible on wet roads, otherwise the tires wouldn't withstand the eight consecutive hours, and on a circular track, but it's still a remarkable record, it's worth seeing the making of: