Porsche Taycan sets EV ice-drifting record: 17km sideways, then the battery went flat

David Linklater
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Sideways in an EV for 17km on ice, no problem: Porsche has set a new Guinness World Record for the "longest continuous vehicle drift on ice by an electric vehicle". Yes, that is a thing and it's hotly contested (in the extreme cold).

Porsche Taycan GTS EV ice drift record.
Drift circle was 59m in diameter; perfect for a quick 132 laps.

At the wheel of a Taycan GTS, Porsche instructor Jens Richter completed a total of 132 laps in controlled oversteer around a course laid out at Porsche Arctic Center in Levi, Finland, around 150km north of the Arctic Circle.

In 46 minutes, he covered exactly 17.503km. That's well ahead of the previous record of 14.809km, set by Wang Zhilong in a Mercedes-Benz.

Under the supervision of official Guinness adjudicator Carl Saville, the Porsche Experience team created a drift circle with a diameter of 59 metres. Commercially available Michelin tires with 1mm spikes were fitted to the car.

Porsche Taycan GTS EV ice drift record.
Supervised by Guinness World Records and all clocked with GPS. It's all official, like.

The vehicle was equipped with a GPS measuring device to measure the route precisely. This not only documents the distance travelled, but also records the driver's actions such as steering wheel movements, accelerator and braking, and the G-forces acting on the vehicle.

The initial attempt didn't go as planned. "Under the extreme continuous load of the drifting Taycan, the ice track deteriorated faster than expected," says Richter. "We therefore had to abort the first attempt after around 11km."

Porsche Taycan GTS EV ice drift record.
Successful second attempt was at night, after the Taycan chewed up the ice-circle during the day.

For the second attempt, the team switched to shorter spikes and took advantage of the fact that the ice temperatures dropped again as darkness fell. Richter kept the Taycan in a controlled drift for a total of 17.503km or 132 laps, using only throttle and steering interventions.

That makes four official records for Taycan. In 2023, the Taycan Cross Turismo achieved the greatest altitude change for an EV: 5573m along the Xinjiang-Tibet route.

Porsche Taycan GTS EV ice drift record.
So that makes four records for Taycan. What will they think of next?

In 2021, racing driver Leh Keen accelerated a Taycan to 165.1km/h in an exhibition hall in New Orleans, Louisiana, setting the record for the fastest speed driven by a vehicle in an enclosed building.

And in 2020, Porsche Experience instructor Dennis Retera drifted exactly 210 laps in a Taycan
at the Porsche Experience Center (PEC) Hockenheimring, covering 42.171km in 55 minutes.

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