GUINNESS WORLD RECORD FOR DRIFTING.

It’s May 11, 2013. At the BMW Performance Center in Greer, South Carolina, the tension is high among the crew: can Johan Schwartz, racing driver and BMW Driving Instructor, break the world record for drifting on the wet asphalt circuit? A white BMW M5 (F10) with 507 hp and rear-wheel drive is gaining momentum. After an unbelievable 51.3 miles (82.5 kilometres) of long-distance drifting, the answer is clear: Schwartz and the BMW M5 have shown everyone how to do it with the world’s longest drift to date, cementing their place in the Guinness Book of World Records.

One year later, however, Harald Müller beat that record with a Toyota GT86 (144.12 kilometres) and in 2017 the South African motor journalist Jesse Adams surpassed this achievement – again with a GT86 – raising the record to an impressive 165.04 kilometres.

The goal of a new record was ambitious, to say the least: the team had to drift the furthest distance possible within eight-hours without stopping and ruining the drifting fun. Although refuelling stops during the attempt are permitted under the Guinness World Record rules, this was not an option if the current record was to be broken. Schwartz and his team had to find a way to refuel the car while driving and the solution was as spectacular as it was unusual. Using a design reminiscent of the fuel tank system of a fighter jet, the M5 would be refuelled by a second vehicle mid-drift. Sounds crazy? You bet it was!

The crew decided to convert a previous-generation BMW M5 (F10) into a ‘tanker’. Matt Mullins, BMW Performance Center Chief Driving Instructor, was to sit behind the wheel for this daring docking manoeuvre. Matt Butts of Detroit Speed – the company that developed ‘jet refuelling’ for the M5 – was in place in the rear of the support vehicle, ready to perform this incredible feat. As the two vehicles’ drifted in parallel, Butts leaned out of the window with the fuel filler nozzle and managed to do what many had deemed impossible at the beginning of the attempt: refuelled Schwartz’s record-breaking vehicle multiple times during the eight-hour stint.