Mauro Calo sets world record for longest drift with Mercedes-Benz C63 AMG

13 years, 4 months ago - 21 June 2011

Who would you think would hold the record for the world's longest drift? Tanner Foust in a Scion? Sam Hubinette in a Dodge? Ken Block in a Subaru or a Ford? Maybe Vaughn Gittin, Jr. in a Mustang? If you guessed the latter, you would be right. Or at least you would have been up until last week

Over the weekend at Mercedes-Benz World at Brooklands in the UK, one Mauro Calo set a new record by drifting a C63 AMG for a continuous 2,308 meters (7,572 feet) – that's nearly a mile and a half of uninterrupted sideways driving, or a solid 394 meters (1,292 ft) longer than the unofficial record Gittin set down in December of 2008 at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

What makes the feat – achieved in a showroom-stock production vehicle on dry tarmac – even more impressive is that it was achieved not on a fat band of pavement, but on the narrow strip around M-B World's handling circuit, beating the previous record by more than the length of a Nimitz-class aircraft carrier in the process.