Paul McKinnon and his team at Evolution Motorsport broke the land speed record for the fastest sofa during a run at Camden Airport in Sydney, Australia, last week. Their top speed of 163km/h [101 mph] broke the previous Guinness World Record of 148km/h [92 mph] held by Englishman Marek Turowsk since 2008. You gonna let Australia upstage your motorized sofas, England? Start connecting motey-motes to sit-abouts immediately. (We assume this is what they call motors and couches over there, right Governor?)
Australia’s leather two-seater, with handy coffee table (complete with cup of coffee and bowl of fruit), was built by designers Evolution Motorsport. It is powered by a Suzuki GSX 1400 motorcycle engine. Project leader Paul McKinnon said the challenge was not just making sure it was fast, but that it could battle the aerodynamic challenge of pushing a squared-off piece of furniture at that speed. [Herald Sun]
They used the coffee table to help break the airflow, and the bowl of fruit is for (we assume) nutrition on the go, which is totally important you guys. The motorized couch was built for Parmalat Australia’s “Add a Motor to It” promotion, which led to some confusion when we tried to add motors to some kangaroos and then told the police Parmalat put us up to it.
Two videos of the record-breaking run are below. Now that the land speed record for a couch has been updated, somebody needs to break the water speed record (if one exists) likely set by these dudes.
https://www.liveleak.com/e/c32_1317096266
[Hat tip and a bowl of fruit glued to a table to Arbroath.]