Porsche has broken the Guinness World Record for the fastest speed achieved by a vehicle indoors.
With the help of American driver Leh Keen, the all-electric Taycan Turbo S Porsche broke the record which hasn’t been broken since 2013.
Leh reached a staggering speed of 165.20 km/h (102.65 mph) at the New Orleans Convention Center, in Louisiana, USA.
The luxury car has a maximum of 750 hp, with four-wheel drive to maximize grip, powerful carbon-ceramic brakes, and the ability to accelerate to 97km/h (60 mph) from a standstill in just 2.6 seconds.
The Guinness World Record, it is this acceleration and deacceleration feature that meant this car was the perfect vehicle for attempting this indoor record.
“When you’re speeding towards a wall at over 100 mph, speedy braking is essential!” Says Guinness World Record.
For a car to attempt to break this record, the guidelines state that the it must be at a standstill at the attempt’s start and finish and of course, the entire attempt must take place indoors.
Challenge finding the venue
Finding a building that is big enough to accommodate such a record attempt was a challenge, and after some searching, Porsche settled on the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center in New Orleans, Louisiana.
The convention centre has an area of over one million square feet, and is the largest contiguous exhibit hall in the United States.
“I didn’t really appreciate the scale of the record attempt until my first exploratory run. The surface is so unpredictable, so slick, that you have to have complete trust in your car,” Leh said.
The fastest speed achieved by a vehicle indoors record had remained unbroken since 2013 at a speed of 140 km/h (86.99 mph).
This record was held by Finnish Mikko Hirvonen who drove a Speed Car XTRM Crosskart (Spain) at the Helsinki Expo Centre, Helsinki, Finland, on 25 February.