A 1960s-era bumper car just got a major upgrade: It is now the fastest bumper car on Earth.
Engineer and amateur inventor Colin Furze overhauled the classic bumper car, turning it into a racing machine after being challenged by the producers of the popular British car show “Top Gear.” Furze, who has previously built record-breaking vehicles like the world’s fastest baby stroller and the fastest mobility scooter (a record that has since been broken), successfully built the world’s fastest bumper car this time, according to Guinness World Records.
Though Furze customized a 1960s bumper car with a 600cc Honda motorbike engine to boost its speed, he kept the chassis and wheel size for a standard bumper car to preserve the vehicle’s original form — as was required by the Guinness World Records rules for the title.
Top Gear’s professional driver, nicknamed “the Stig,” drove the enhanced bumper car to a record-breaking speed of 100.336 mph (161.476 km/h).
“Stig is at his happiest when he’s making the slow, fast — so what better way to celebrate the new series of ‘Top Gear’ than by taking a rusty old bumper car and converting it into the ultimate fairground speed machine,” Furze said in a statement.
