You learn something new every day. For example, there’s a Guinness World Records title for the fastest speed by a vehicle indoors – and, until recently, it stood at 86 mph for the last seven years. The new record (officially called the Indoor Land Speed Record) is now held by the Porsche Taycan and professional driver Leh Keen. Per the rules established by Guinness World Records, Keen had to start his attempt and finish it at a standstill, all within the space of a given building.
The Big Easy (Or Maybe Not)
The record-breaking attempt took place inside the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center in New Orleans, Louisiana. At just over one million square feet, the convention center boasts the largest contiguous exhibit hall in the United States, ideal for a speed run like this. However, the polished concrete surface of the convention center is like driving on ice. In order to prepare, Keen took time to make a few low-speed exploratory runs.
“I didn’t really appreciate the scale of the record attempt until my first exploratory run,” Keen explained. “The surface is so unpredictable, so slick, that you have to have complete trust in your car. It truly was like ice – and you’re accelerating flat out, facing a really hard wall at the end. Suddenly, even in a massive space like the one we had, it seems very small.”
“What Was I Thinking . . . ”
There could be no safety net, no doors open inside the convention center, and therefore no escape route, also per the rules established by Guinness World Records. “I could feel the Taycan’s systems figuring it out, working so hard to keep me heading straight – it was such an impressive feat,” Keen recalled. “To accelerate so hard on such an erratic surface was incredible. Not for a moment did I doubt I could do it.”
And indeed Keen did it. Independent adjudicators confirmed his run as 102.6 mph. Check out the video of the record-breaking run below.
“I’m thankful for Porsche for trusting my abilities and for their preparations and encouragement,” Keen said. “102 mph inside a building. What was I thinking?”
