Skip to main content

Top Gear’s Stig sets new world speed record in a bumper car

World's Fastest Bumper Car - 600cc 100bhp But how FAST? - Colin Furze Top Gear Project
It’s probably not a good idea to tell YouTube inventor Colin Furze he can’t figure out a way to make any normally stodgy or stationary object outrageously fast. BBC’s Top Gear took the exact opposite approach when it asked Furze to rig up an amusement park-style bumper car. The plan was for Top Gear’s The Stig to break a speed record driving the bumper car, as reported by Road and Track.

The intrepid inventor stuffed a 600cc sports bike engine into a bumper car. With The Stig at the wheel, the amusement park ride vehicle scored a place in the Guinness Book of World Records with an average speed topping 100 mph over two runs. On the faster run, The Stig blasted through the timer at 107.39 mph. With the second run of 93.28 mph, the average 100.34 mph for the two runs set the new record.

Related Videos

Furze started with a barn-find 1960s dodgem, aka bumper car. After stripping out the heavy pieces — the protective bumper — Furze added a go-cart rear axle with two wheels for the rear and a single wide wheel in front.

For way more than just adequate power, Furze crammed in a 100-horsepower, four-cylinder 600cc Honda sports bike engine that will take its usual vehicle to about 150 mph. Rigging the exhaust system, steering, shifter, radiator, and other vital components are shown in additional YouTube videos.

On the Guinness Book of World Records website, Guinness adjudicator Lucia Sinigagliesi, the official on site when the records was set said: “We’re all used to seeing The Stig driving at high speeds – but he’s usually in a sports car and usually on a race track. To see him hurtle past in a classic bumper car at 100mph was surreal, but hugely impressive. Equally as impressive are the engineering expertise of Colin Furze – the combination of their skills makes for record-breaking fun.”

Other Colin Furze projects have included stuffing a rickshaw (tuk tuk) with a sports bike engine plus guns and rocket launchers, building a jet-powered bicycle, and a jet-power go kart.

Editors' Recommendations

How The Stig traded in his white helmet for an Oculus Rift and Project Cars
project cars

The golden age of arcade games brought innovation to the industry, particularly when it came to racing titles. Early driving sims featured a steering wheel and gear shifter, and cockpit-style cabinets added a throttle and brake pedal. The introduction of force feedback offered further immersion. This was how a young Ben Collins first honed his virtual driving skills, which would later lead to his storied career as a professional racer. You may also know him as the helmeted tame racing driver from the Clarkson/Hammond/May era of Top Gear.

Ben took on the role of the Stig for nearly a decade, during which Top Gear became one of the most popular television shows in the world.

Read more
BBC’s all-new Top Gear finally gets a release date
bbcs all new top gear gets a release date chris evans

When the BBC sacked its star Top Gear presenter back in March following a bust-up with one of the show's producers, the future of the program -- a significant global success and cash cow for the corporation -- was uncertain.

The BBC quickly decided that the brand was too important to abandon, and announced British TV and radio presenter Chris Evans as the show's new host. In an interview over the weekend, 49-year-old Evans finally revealed the launch date of the all-new Top Gear as May 29.

Read more
A German electric car just beat the 0-to-62 world record with a time of 1.779 seconds
GreenTeam Formula Student electric car

When I was in college, my most crowing achievement was an ungodly long and annotated research project about federally sponsored broadband networks. I was proud of it, but a group of students in Germany have officially succeeded in making my accomplishments feel fruitless.

Members of the GreenTeam Formula Student group at Stuttgart University have set an unofficial world record for a 0-to-62 mph sprint, posting a blistering time of 1.779 seconds.

Read more