With 3.15 inches to spare, this is officially the world’s tightest parallel park

By Andrew Hard November 24, 2014

Most people agree that for something to be a sport, it must be both athletic and competitive. I’m not sure parallel parking qualifies, but if solo synchronized swimming can make it to the Olympics, competitive parking can too.

If that ever happens, a Chinese stunt driver named Han Yue has a great shot to win the gold.

At the 2014 China Drift Championship held in Chongqing, Yue slid into the history books by parallel parking a MINI 3-door Hatch between two others just like it. When it was all said and done, there were only 3.15 inches of room in total to spare.

A video of the feat has been posted by Guinness World Records, which includes Yue’s test run before the final attempt. To break the record, Yue races toward the opening at a comfortable speed, then engages the emergency brake, whipping the MINI into place without a scratch. After the dust settled, not even the tape used to measure the gap would fit between the MINIs.

Han-Yue-parallel-parking-record-2

Afterward, Yue’s team materialized around him to throw him in the air, which was probably the most athletic thing to happen all day.

From the looks of his jumpsuit, Yue is sponsored by Red Bull, who will hopefully provide the wings it’ll take to get out of that spot.

The previous record was an impressive 3.38 inches, set last year by an Englishman named Alistair Moffat. Moffat was more accurate than the 2012 measure of 5.9 inches, set by none other than Han Yue himself.

His technique is undeniably impressive, but amateur motorists take note: this type of maneuver will probably put an end to your driver’s test pretty quick.

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Andrew first started writing in middle school and hasn't put the pen down since. Whether it's technology, music, sports, or…

Cars

That’s gotta hurt. MINI Countryman nose-dives during 360-foot world-record jump

360 foot car jump attempt fails steal guinness world record mini countryman

Careening through houses, thumping down stairs, and slipping onto trains are not the only crazy stunts MINIs are capable of. Everything has to be bigger and better, in order to satisfy some strange human lust for seeing small hatchbacks fly through the air.
Tanner Foust set the Guinness World Record in 2011 with an outrageous 332-foot jump. Foust, however, chose a flying truck instead of a MINI Countryman. So what on earth was going through professional skier and French rally driver Guerlain Chicherit’s mind when he attempted this stunt?
Last year Chicherit successfully preformed a back flip in a MINI. The entire car rotated around the engine in midair perfectly. You'd think the team would realize same thing could happen when jumping the Countryman. After all, the four-door MINI has most of its mass up front.
In a bid to beat Tanner Foust, the French rally driver tried to fly an incredible 360 feet. In the video below, you can see Chicherit nearly stick the landing, but the Countryman takes a sever and sudden nose dive. A MINI might look like it can fly, but I wouldn’t wager BMW engineered for flight. Thankfully Chicherit escaped unharmed but went to the hospital for safety measures.
Hopefully the next attempt will be a success; it would be nice to see the king of Hot-Wheels finally get “Fousted”.

Cars

Lateral thinking: BMW M5 sets Guinness World Record for longest sustained drift

The Bugatti Veyron Super Sport may hold the Guinness World Record for fastest production car, but BMW knows there’s still plenty of glory to be had going sideways as well as straight.
A BMW M5 set the Guinness World Record longest sustained drift at the company’s Performance Center near Greenville, South Carolina, with performance driving instructor Johan Schwartz at the wheel.
For those of you who spend most of your time acting like responsible adults, drifting involves sliding a car around a track in a controlled fashion. Drivers allow the car’s power to overcome traction, breaking the rear end loose, but balance steering and throttle inputs to keep the car from completely spinning. A fairly crappy movie was even made about it.
The record-setting distance was 51.278 miles, beating the 41.71-mile mark set in Abu Dhabi in February.
Of course, BMW didn’t just release Schwartz and his M5 on an interstate to drift a distance equal to some people’s morning commute.
For the record attempt, the M5 drifted around an 841-foot circular skidpad, completing 322.5 laps.
The M5 used in the attempt was an unmodified example from the BMW Performance Center’s driving school fleet, equipped with an M DCT dual-clutch automated transmission. The fresh set of Continental ContiSport tires it wore at the beginning of the drifting marathon probably needed to be replaced by the end.
Organized drifting started in Japan, so popular drifting cars tend to be Japanese. Affordable models like the Toyota Corolla AE86 and Nissan 240SX are popular for those looking to bald out their tires.
However, the only real requirements for a drift car are rear-wheel drive, to let the back end slide and for handling balance, and enough power to spin those back wheels, breaking traction and initiating a drift.
With a 560 horsepower, twin-turbocharged 4.4-liter V8, the M5 was a perfect candidate. Still, with a price tag of $90,200, hitting a wall mid-drift would be very expensive.

Cars

‘Ride The Future Tour’ aims to set three EV Guinness World Records, will take 43 days to do it

Although it’s been done before, the “Ride The Future Tour” aims travel almost 3,000 miles in 43 days from North Carolina to the Google headquarters in California with stops along the way at major cities to recharge and build publicity.
The trip will not only bring attention to EVs, it’ll also aim to break three Guinness World Records: "longest journey on an electric scooter," "longest journey on an electric motorcycle," and "longest journey in an electric car,” according to the Christian Science Monitor.
Additional to its press junkets, the tour will also produce a documentary for the trip, which if done right could be sort of interesting. While we like the idea, generally, we wonder if the aim is less about the cars than it is about the egos behind the wheels.
Is a cross-country trip over 43 days in electric cars really that noteworthy? We’re not convinced. Do it in three weeks; and you’ll have us talking. Do it in three days and we'll shout "the (EV) future is now!"
Starting July 4th you can keep tabs on the spotlight-seeking Ride The Future Tour through their website: http://ridethefuturetour.com/