Outside of racing, I don’t think anyone buys a car because the same model was used to break the world record for the longest drift in eight hours. Well, that didn’t stop BMW from modifying an M5 so it could be refuelled mid-drift, sticking it on a circular track and destroying the previous record of 144km.
In the video, driver Johan Schwartz, with the help of “refuellers” Matt Mullins and Matt Butts, managed to drift the M5 a distance of 374.17km over the course of eight hours.
To accomplish this task, the M5 was altered to so it could be topped up while driving. Engineers studied military aircraft — where mid-air refuelling is common — to come up with the design.
The final setup allowed the second car to get within half-a-metre of the drifting vehicle and add between 56-68L of petrol in 50 seconds. If you’re curious about how BMW went about solving the refuelling problem, here’s the behind-the-scenes video.
[YouTube]