Chinese stuntman sets Guinness record for fastest lap on Nurburgring using only two-wheels

It was also probably the slowest lap ever recorded on the notorious race track, but that’s understandable.

On 18 January, Guinness World Records announced that stunt driver Han Yue of China set the record for “Fastest Side-Wheelie Lap of the Nurburgring Nordschleife.” The Nurburgring race complex is well-known to motorsports fans and Gran Turismo players alike for it’s challenge and size, earning the nickname “The Green Hell” by F1 driver Jackie Stewart.

Despite its menacing reputation, Han was ready to tackle it using only two wheels of his Mini Cooper. He managed to keep it up through all 22.81 kilometers (14.17 miles) of the Nordschleife (North Loop) section of Nurburgring and finished in 45 minutes and 59 seconds.

Here’s a video of the lap condensed into two minutes.

To give you some perspective of Han’s lap time, the fastest lap by a street-legal vehicle is said to belong to the Porsche 918 Spyder which finished in 6 minutes and 57 seconds. Meanwhile, a Toyota Prius was able to clear a lap in 20 minutes and 59 seconds on four teaspoons of fuel.

So Han wasn’t breaking any speed records when he made his attempt last November, but that only showed how grueling and stressful it must have been for him to maintain balance around the 73 bends and 300 meters (1,000 feet) of elevation difference all that time. Conditions on that day were also a little wet and sunny causing Han to remark, “The Green Hell really lived up to its name.”

Luckily for Han, this wasn’t his first audition in front of a Guinness committee. He also holds the incredibly specific records for both the “Tightest Gap Driven Through by Two Cars on Two Wheels” and “Most Donuts Around a Car Driving on Two Wheels in One Minute.”

And so we would like to congratulate Han Yue for his amazing accomplishment that serves as a reminder to all that there is nothing you can’t do with a car on only two of its wheels, if you set your mind to it. Something I think we all tend to forget in this face-paced workaday life of ours.

Source: Guinness World Records, Stuff
Video, top image: YouTube/Guinness World Records

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