5 Weird and Wonderful Car Records

5 weird and wonderful car records

You might think, given that you’re on a site like this one, perhaps looking for a great car finance deal, that you’re relatively “into” cars. You might have even done a few odd things on four wheels in your time (we’ll avoid venturing into Too Much Information territory on that one). But have you ever held a record in relation to your use or ownership of a car?

A fair few people have – and it’s amazing what lengths petrolheads occasionally go to, in order to be an automotive recordholder. Here are just a few examples of what we mean.

The hairiest car

The COVID-19 pandemic has undoubtedly caused a fair few of us to become lax with our shaving habits, but this isn’t a reference to that. In fact, it was way back in 2010 when a hairstylist from Italy, Maria Lucia Mugno, was first recognised by the Guinness Book of World Records for her Fiat 500 coated in hair, in homage to her profession. She then set a new record in 2014, by adding even more hair to her pride and joy.

The longest continuous car skid

This sounds like a record that, at the very least, a fair few enthusiasts with a bit too much horsepower in their veins would actually aim at. But no… professional driver Norman Craig Breedlove produced a six-mile-long skid mark – and with it, his name in the record books – accidentally, due to losing control of his vehicle in October 1964.

The fastest garden shed

Would this one even technically count as a “car” record? We think it does, on account of the current world recordholder essentially being a Volkswagen Passat fitted with a 450-horsepower V6 twin-turbo engine from an Audi RS4. It was piloted by the UK’s very own Kevin Nicks at the Elvington airfield in North Yorkshire in September 2020, reaching a very brisk top speed of 106.123mph (170.788 km/h) over a standing mile.

The longest custom banana car

There can be no doubting who has been the “top banana” in motoring since 2011, when this particular record was set; the UK-born, Michigan-resident Steve Braithwaite, whose “banana car” is built on the chassis of a 1993 Ford F-150 pickup truck. It measures 6.97 metres (22ft 10.5in) long and 3.09 metres (10ft 2in) high. The vehicle’s also got room for three passengers behind the driver. That leaves just one question: do we have to call banana drivers “potassiumheads” rather than “petrolheads”?

The most times hit by a car in two minutes

Here at the CarFinanceGenie blog, we trust that all of our readers are responsible drivers who wouldn’t even think of attempting this one outside of very controlled conditions! And yes, such conditions thankfully applied for the setting of this one, at the Guinness World Records studios in 2007. It was Germany’s Dietmarr Loeffler who pulled off the feat, being hit eight times. That has to hurt…

There you have it – just five of the many records showing that human beings have done some seriously curious, and unprecedented, things with cars. At CarFinanceGenie, we do extraordinary things with cars, too – namely, we offer highly competitive bad credit car finance options to those who might otherwise struggle to secure funding for their next motor.

Why not join these people right now, by applying for car finance with us today?