Russian Man Claims To Have Set New World Record For Longest Drift

In 2018, a BMW M5 set a new world record for the longest car drift of 232.5 miles. In order to maintain its fuel capacity, it was refueled by a second M5 mid-drift and was able to sustain this process for eight hours.

Now it is being reported that a Russian man named Evghenii Novokşonov is claiming to have set a new drifting record of at least 273.2 miles. Novokşonov live-streamed his attempt on YouTube while driving a VAZ-2106 equipped with an extra gas tank that was able to store approximately an additional 53 gallons of fuel, adding to the vehicle’s stock 10.5-gallon tank.

According to the Moldavian site Autoblog.md, Novokşonov held his drifting attempt on a frozen lake in the Chelyabinsk area.

The record was previously held by Johan Schwart, a BMW Performance Driving School instructor in December 2017 at the BMW Performance Center in Greer, SC.

While Novokşonov was able to surpass Schwart’s record of 232.5 miles, he needed much more time as his endeavor lasted for 17 hours and 34 minutes.

The VAZ-2106’s radiator is said to have failed during the 16th hour of the drift, but was able to last another 90 minutes before he chose to end what must have been a very exhausting ride.

Due to sanctions against Russia, Novokşonov’s record is uneligible to be registered under Guinness. However, he did manage to collect donations from his live stream to raise funds for his application to the Russian Book of Records.