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

By Bruce Brown Published March 31, 2017

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.

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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.

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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.

Former Contributing Editor

Bruce Brown Contributing Editor As a Contributing Editor to the Auto teams at Digital Trends and TheManual.com, Bruce…

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