BMW shatters record for longest drift
Car-to-car re-fuelling key to German marque’s new world feaBMW has smashed the record for the longest continuous wet drift undertaken in eight hours, with a distance of 374.1km.
The feat was achieved by BMW racing driver Johan Schwartz at the wheel of the new M5, and supported by Matt Mulllins, a BMW precision driver, who steered an F10 M5 a re-fuel car in tow.
Fitted with a specialist drift mode as standard, the new M5 accomplished the marathon mission averaging a speed of 46.6km/h. It was re-fuelled five times using a custom window-mounted fuelling system and support crew hanging out the window of Mullins’ F10.
The feat saw BMW shatter the previous best post of 144.11km set by German driver Harald Müller in a Toyota 86. Before that, the previous benchmark was set by an M5 in 2013.
In this latest attempt, BMW broke another record as the two cars drifted in tandem for 79.26km over one hour.
“We knew that if we were going to recapture the world record for the longest sustained drift and set the bar as high as possible, we would need to find a way to keep the M5 going without stopping to refuel,” said Schwartz.
“In the end, the refueling system worked flawlessly and the M5 performed as expected. It was a big win all around.”
Nissan maintains its record for the world's fastest drift, after a GT-R Nismo was clocked doing 305km/h sideways in 2016.
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