The Porsche Taycan GTS Just Set a World Record for Drifting on Ice

In the last couple of decades, drifting has risen in popularity. That’s due, in part, to the Fast and Furious franchise but also because of the real skill involved: Just ask anyone who’s ever been to a Formula Drift event. Automakers have gotten into the act, too, with Porsche revealing their latest feat on Tuesday. Porsche said it managed to drift a Taycan GTS for 46 minutes on ice.

Porsche set the record on January 14 at an ice track in Finland, where, originally, conditions weren’t quite ideal.

“Under the extreme continuous load of the drifting Taycan, the ice track deteriorated faster than expected,” Jens Richter, the Porsche driver who set the record, said. “We therefore had to abort the first attempt after around 11 kilometers.”

A second attempt at the record was more successful. Richter drifted the Taycan for 46 minutes and for 17.5 kilometers, or 10.8 miles, “using only throttle and steering interventions”—no brakes. Porsche said the previous record for length for a drift on ice was 14.8 kilometers, or about 9.2 miles.

“The Taycan has once again proven its sideways driving qualities,” Richter said. “And this time even with all-wheel drive.”

Porsche said the Finland track had a drift circle that was 193 feet wide, and the Taycan wore “commercially available” Michelin tires with one-millimeter spikes. An adjudicator with Guinness World Records was on hand to verify the drift, which was also tracked with GPS.

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For Porsche, such a feat is good marketing for the Taycan, proving how well it can fare in extreme conditions. It was also probably, for the Porsche team, a good excuse to go 93 miles north of the Arctic Circle and have some fun.