Drifting is a way of driving with precise control and mostly exists only in performances or racing events where the road conditions change a lot.
It requires focus and balance to maintain the drifting motion and can be difficult to do even once.
But Chinese car brand IM Motors, or Zhiji Motors, decided to test the drifting limit by attempted the longest drift in an electric car on a wet surface with their Zhiji L7 electric car.
Attempting a drifting record on a wet surface adds an extra layer of difficulty, as even greater control is required to ensure the smooth movement of the car.
The official driver of Zhiji Motors, Wei Pengda (aka Panda), drifted in the electric car for an extraordinary 1 hour and 6 minutes, clocking up 258 laps of the track (that's the equivalent of 43.646 kilometers or 27.120 miles!) to break the record.
Prior to this, the previous record was set by Porsche official driver Dennis Retera on 27 August 2020, at the Porsche Experience Center in Hockenheim, Germany.
Retera drove a Porsche Taycan rear-wheel drive version for 55 consecutive minutes (42.171 kilometers / 26.203 miles).
In normal drifting, the driver slides the car sideways by oversteering, which has more demanding requirements on the vehicle's performance.
The continuous, uninterrupted drifting is an all-round test of the vehicle's power, driving control and other performance.
The core elements of drifting are balance, stability, driving characteristics and power performance.
As a car brand that has been established for nearly a century, Zhiji Motors was well prepared to take on the challenge.
Zhiji L7 is built on the iO "Origin" electric architecture and is dubbed the "car born for drifting" by Zhiji Motors.
According to the company, the model also has "an excellent high-performance body layout, a perfect 50:50 front-to-rear axle load ratio, a 490mm ultra-low center of gravity, and many top-notch chassis hardware".
In the process of developing the L7, Zhiji Motors teamed up with the engineering team at Williams Grand Prix Engineering Limited. Together, they conducted a year-long joint selection and tuning of the chassis for the Zhiji L7.
This lightweight all-aluminum chassis structure has 50:50 axle load ratio.
Achieving the Guinness World Records title for the longest drift in an electric car on a wet surface allowed the work of the Zhiji Motors engineering team to be put to the test.
"[The record] demonstrates the strong technical background and high professional level of the professional engineer team, which is also the foundation of Jiji Automobile in the field of pure electric luxury cars." -Zhiji Motors
Times are changing dramatically and so is the driving experience of cars. The only constant is the pursuit for new, more advanced technologies.
In this ever-changing landscape, we look forward to seeing the evolution of this and other electric car records in the future.
