Toyota 86 breaks longest drift record

How long can you hold a drift? A few seconds? A whole minute? Six hours?

That probably depends on what your definition of drifting is. According to Guinness World Records, as long as the driven wheels are still spinning, it’s all one continuous drift.

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The most recent ‘official’ record belongs to German man Harald Müller (and the Turkish Ministry of Youth and Sports, for some reason), who drifted a Toyota 86 for 144.126 km on 15 July 2014.

However, the most recent ‘unofficial’ record belongs to South African motoring journalist Jesse Adams, who did 1000 laps of a small, circular skidpan setup.

The result was a 168.5km drifting session lasting five hours and 45 minutes. In a Toyota 86. Picking up a theme here?

The ‘slidey’ rear driver is easy to get sideways, making it an easy choice for spending a quarter of a day getting sideways.

The publication Adams writes for, IOL Motoring, asked him how he felt after his slog in the seat of a budget coupe.

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"I just wanna go to bed now! I want a hot bath and to go to bed," he told his colleague.

"There was a point at around 600 laps when I was seriously ready to stop. I didn't think I was going to make it, but I did, and probably could have done another 200."

If you were worried he got off lightly, fear not. Adams went through plenty of drift practice to make sure he’d be able to meet his goal.

There are worse ways to spend a few hours, that’s for sure.