Porsche Taycan snags new Guinness World Records title for driving at over 100 mph indoors

– Feb. 10th 2021 10:05 am ET

Porsche has achieved a new Guinness World Records title by driving its Taycan electric car at over 100 mph inside a building.

One lesser-known advantage of an electric car is that you can drive it inside without the need for proper ventilation.

Do that with a gasoline-powered vehicle and you might not be there to tell us how it went.

At first glance, that might not offer many obvious advantages, but countries with a lot of EV adoptions are starting to find a few.

Norway, which has the highest number of electric vehicles per capita, recently realized that it was able to slash NOK 300 million ($35 million USD) off the cost of a new tunnel project by removing unnecessary ventilation shafts.

They figured that the amount of emissions at any given time in the tunnel won’t require the number of shafts that it would have a few years ago, thanks to the higher mix of electric vehicles on Norway’s roads.

Elon Musk’s Boring Company is also able to maintain lower costs for their “Loop” tunnels because only electric vehicles are designed to travel in them.

Now Porsche is also bringing its electric Taycan inside, but this time it’s not about saving costs.

The German automaker set the world record for the fastest speed driven by a vehicle in an enclosed building:

Racer Leh Keen beat the record by over 20 km/h in a Taycan Turbo S inside an exhibition hall in New Orleans.

Keen said:

I did take a moment on the starting line – knowing I was going to have to go as fast as I could, and stop again, all before reaching the wall I was facing. It got my attention. I used the car’s launch control and the Taycan just hooked up – the sensation of speed indoors, even in such a big space, is enormous – that wall rushed up fast. I was gentle on the brakes in the end – the Taycan’s brakes were more than up to the job. Of course, I didn’t look down at my speed so it came as a surprise and a relief that I’d beaten the record, and by such a margin. It was a rush! I’m thankful to Porsche for trusting my abilities and for their preparations and encouragement – 165,1 km/h inside a building. What was I thinking?

The driver managed to achieved a speed of 165.1 km/h (102.5 mph) on the polished concrete floor of the building.

The Taycan is rapidly becoming one of Porsche’s best-selling models and in the US, the automaker recently launched a new version of the Taycan for under $80,000.

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Porsche

German automaker part of the Volkswagen group

Porsche Taycan

Porsche Taycan is an all-electric car manufactured by Porsche. It was first shown as a concept named Mission E at the Frankfurt Motor Show in 2015, and then in production at the Frankfurt Motor Show in 2019.