What's all this about?
Skoda has set not one but two Guinness World Records with its new high-performance electric SUV, the Enyaq vRS. The car, driven by motoring journalist Richard Meaden, set a world record for the longest continuous drift on ice, and also claimed the record for the longest continuous drift on ice by an electric car in the process.
Sounds cool...
Very. Skoda first had to find a frozen lake on which to complete the challenge, and the Czech company settled on the not-at-all Czech Stortjärnen, located in Krokom, Sweden. There, the team spent five days on the 40cm-thick ice setting up the attempt, experimenting with different tyre combinations while dealing with the short daylight hours. Finally, the record was set on January 19, 2023, with a Guinness World Records adjudicator present and international drifting judge David Kalas as a witness.
So the car wasn’t entirely standard…?
Yes and no. Although it was essentially a conventional Enyaq vRS you could order tomorrow (although it wouldn’t arrive until early summer), it was fitted with an odd tyre combination that helped to some degree. The 20-inch alloy front wheels were shod in Däckproffsen ‘event tyres’ sourced from Michelin, which had 600 5mm studs for greater traction and steering input on the ice. The rear wheels, meanwhile, had Nokian Hakkapelitta 255/45-R20 tyres with 300 2mm studs across the tyre surface.
So how long was this drift, anyway?
In the end, driver Meaden had the Enyaq drifting continuously for a total of 15 minutes and 58 seconds, covering a total of 7.351km, or just over 4.5 miles. It eclipsed the previous record, which was set in China, of 3.872 miles. Thanks to the sheet ice, Meaden only needed to drive the car at between 48.69km/h (30.25mph) and 31.64km/h (19.66mph) to maintain the drift.
Hmm... This Meaden chap sounds familiar...
That isn’t entirely surprising. Richard ‘Dickie’ Meaden is a British motoring journalist and racing driver, and one of the founder members of Evo magazine. And this is the second time he has teamed up with Skoda to set a record. Back in 2011, he set a new Southern Californian Timing Association (SCTA) Land Speed Record for a 2.0-litre forced induction production car. Driving a modified Skoda Octavia vRS specially prepared by Skoda UK on the legendary Bonneville Salt Flats in the USA, he hit a top speed of 227.080 mph.
So how can I recreate the record at home?
Well, the first thing to say is "you shouldn't." Unless you really are a first-class racing driver with a frozen lake at your disposal and a car company's support team. Somehow we think it's unlikely you'll find all that in the UK.
James Fossdyke - 2 Feb 2023