A standard production Porsche Cayenne S Diesel SUV has successfully pulled a 285-tonne Air France Airbus for more than 42-metres at Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris, France.
Driven by Porsche Great Britain technician Richard Payne, the Cayenne Diesel set a new Guinness World Records title for heaviest aircraft pull by a production car, by a margin of 115-tonnes.
Air France devoted its engineering hangar and one of its fleet of ten Airbus A380 aircraft to the project. The 60,000 square metre hangar was designed specifically to house the Airbus A380 and is usually home to all the engineering and maintenance activity for the Air France fleet.
The 4.8-metre Porsche SUV was connected to the 73-metre A380 by a special towing attachment that sat on the Cayenne’s standard tow bar.
The Guinness World Records title was set first by a Cayenne S Diesel, producing 288kW and 850 Nm. The exercise was then repeated using a Porsche Cayenne Turbo S.
“We don’t usually go this far to test the limits of our cars, but I think today we got pretty close,” says Richard Payne.
“I could tell that it was working hard but the Cayenne didn’t complain and just got on with it. My mirrors were quite full of Airbus, which was interesting,” he says.
“Our cars can go a bit beyond what our customers might expect. But even so, what the Cayenne did today was remarkable – we drove the car here from London – and I plan to drive it home again, having towed an A380 in between,” says Payne.
“It was exciting to watch the two machines together – our engineers were intrigued and impressed. Congratulations to Porsche on a remarkable achievement,” says Air France Industries executive vice president Gery Mortreux.
“I’ve verified some amazing record attempts during my time as an adjudicator but watching a Porsche Cayenne tow one of the largest aircraft in the world ranks as among the most spectacular,” says Guinness World Records adjudicator Pravin Patel.
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