Porsche Taycan GTS Sets Another Ice Cold Guinness World Record

Porsche took the Taycan GTS to the frigid climes of Finland to attempt another Guinness World Record. This time, the car, in the hands of Porsche instructor Jens Richter, successfully drifted the electric sports sedan around the company's Artic Center circuit for a total of 132 laps for 46 minutes, covering 17.5 kilometers(10.87 miles). This distance makes the Porsche Taycan the longest continuous vehicle drift on ice by an electric vehicle ever.


If you follow Porsche Taycan news, you're probably aware that this electric four-door sedan isn't shy about breaking records. No doubt one of the quickest and most capable EVs on sale today, the Taycan's performance achievements put in the upper echelons of the general automotive world. For its latest exploit, Porsche decided to attempt the longest continuous EV drift on ice by taking a Taycan GTS to the company's Artic Center in Levi, Finland. 

Situated over 90 miles north of the Arctic Circle, Levi's cold-weather conditions combined with the prepped ice surface (200 ft in diameter) at the test center would ideally make the perfect drift spot, but it turned out a little trickier than anticipated. The first attempt on the afternoon of January 15 saw Porsche Experience instructor Jens Richter drifting under "challenging external conditions." Richter said that the extreme load of the drift caused the the ice track to deteriorate faster than planned. The attempt had to be aborted at around the 11 km (6.83 mi).


For the next attempt, the team swapped out for shorter tire spikes plus with darkness creeping in, the dropping temperatures helped harden the drive surface. This time, Richter dizzyingly kept the Taycan in a controlled drift for 17.503 km (or 132 laps around the circuit). With the confirmation by the official Guinness World Records adjudicator, this achievement breaks the previous EV ice drift record of 14.809 km (9.2 mi). 


Just as impressively, the record-breaking car had very minimal mods (if you even want to call it that)—stock tires were switched for commercially available Michelin tires with one millimeter spikes and a professional GPS device to document distances, steering wheel movements, accelerator, braking, and G-forces.

Prior to this, the Taycan has held three other Guinness World Records—fastest speed driven by a vehicle in an enclosed building (102.5 mph in a New Orleans exhibition hall), greatest altitude change by an electric car, and longest drift by an EV (42.171 km for 55 minutes).