Porsche Gets Guinness World Record for Driving Around Bunch of Cones
And today in the category of ridiculously specific world records: Chloe Chambers, at the wheel of a 2020 Porsche 718 Spyder, set a new Guinness World Record for “Fastest Vehicle Slalom.”
This automatically leads us to wonder what qualifies as a vehicle slalom. Apparently, it’s a course of 51 cones laid out in a straight line on an airstrip, all equally spaced at 50-foot intervals. Surprisingly, Porsche isn’t the first one to come up with the challenge, and thus Chambers didn’t just set a new record — she also beat one.
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With a time of 47.45 seconds, she beat the previous, record 48.11-second run set by racing driver Jia Qiang in December 2018, who had been at the wheel of a Chevrolet Camaro RS.
We do have to question the methodology. Not touching any of the cones is a requirement, but Qiang’s run involved thin pole cones rather than the traditional orange, pyramid-shaped cones. In other words, it seems Porsche made it unnecessarily harder for Chambers than it needed to be.
Indeed, her performance was impressive, especially for a 16-year old with only about seven years of racing experience — most of it in karts. Given her age, she hasn’t exactly spent much time behind the wheel of a car, which meant she had to adapt very quickly.
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According to Porsche, the 718 Spyder that Chambers drove was bone stock, down to the tires. The run took place at an independently certified course measured by a surveyor, and an adjudicator from Guinness World Records was on site when the record was broken. Very official.
“It looks easy, but it’s really not — to weave between 50 cones as fast as possible, trying to beat a record time and knowing I couldn’t touch a single one for the run to count — I definitely felt the pressure,” Chambers said. “Everything came together on my final run; the car worked beautifully and I found the grip I needed. Thank you to my family and to Porsche for supporting and believing in me.”
Check out the Fastest Vehicle Slalom in the official Porsche video below.
Kurt Verlin was born in France and lives in the United States. Throughout his life he was always told French was the language of romance, but it was English he fell in love with. He likes cats, music, cars, 30 Rock, Formula 1, and pretending to be a race car driver in simulators; but most of all, he just likes to write about it all. See more articles by Kurt.