The Brief
Connect an Air France Airbus A380 weighing 285 tonnes to a completely standard Porsche Cayenne, and what do you get? A new Guinness World RecordsTM title for the Heaviest object ever towed by a production car.
Porsche GB wanted to further the reach of their global PR campaign. As a way of demonstrating their phenomenally tough standards of efficiency, durability and advanced design, this collaboration with one of the most sophisticated and largest aircraft ever created proved a natural fit. Both parties were determined and curious to push engineering boundaries far beyond anyone’s expectations – by an impressive margin of 115 tonnes.
The Solution
The made-to-measure service, guidance and attention to detail from Guinness World Records left nothing to chance on the day. A special attachment was first put on the 4.8 metre-long towbar of the Porsche Cayenne. Porsche GB driver and technician, Richard Payne, then smoothly pulled a 73-metre long Airbus out of its state-of-the-art maintenance hangar at Charles de Gaulle Airport.
The whole exciting event was photographed and filmed, from start to finish. And to comply with the strict rules of Guinness World Records, the performance test was conducted on both a Cayenne S Diesel and Porsche Cayenne Turbo S. It was also overseen by independent engineers who checked every major component in order to verify that both cars were made entirely to production standard.
It did it – I’m so relieved. We don’t usually go this far to test the limits of our cars, but I think today we got pretty close. What the car did today was remarkable. We drove it from London, and I plan to drive it home again, having towed an A380 in between!
