How do you aim to break records? You set it so that it’ll be difficult for others to follow, like doing it sideways. That’s what BMW recently did with their latest F90 M5 with their precision driving instructor, Johan Schwartz. On 11th December 2017, Schwartz performed a sustained drift at the BMW Performance Centre in South Carolina in the new M5. He covered 374.2 km in eight hours, and set a new Guinness World Record for the longest drift.
Yet, that wasn’t the only Guinness World Record that was awarded that day. Thanks to a custom-built refuelling system developed by BMW in collaboration with a North Carolina-based company Detroit Speed, the drifting session was able to be done continuously without break (talk about endurance!). The system enabled the M5 to be refuelled during the drift, similar to fighter jets in mid-flight.
In another F10 M5 driven by Matt Mullins Chief Driving Instructor for the BMW Performance Centre, and Matt Butts of Detroit Speed doing the refuelling, the synchronised drifts were performed five times that covered a total 79.3 km for over an hour. The second Guinness World Record was awarded for the longest twin vehicle water-assisted drift.
However, this wasn’t Johan’s first attempt at the record. In 2013, he actually broke the existing record for the longest continuous drift at 11.2 km by almost eight times, setting it at 82.5 km.
Behind The Scenes
Want to know more about the BMW 5 Series? Click here for a handy infographic on the 5 Series history.
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