Just last week BMW USA published a short teaser showing what looked like a BMW F90 M5 drifting alongside its predecessor, the F10 M5 on a wet track. Back then we also noticed the fact that there seemed to be more to it than just tandem drifting but since everyone was tight lipped, we couldn’t quite put our finger on it. Today, however, another video was published telling us it was all about setting a new world record.
BMW held the title for the longest drift for a while thanks to Johan Schwartz, who managed to attain it with the old M5. Then the record was broken and that was just another challenge for the veteran BMW instructor, who was actually excited about going at it once again. However, this time, the rules had changed, as they wanted to drift for 8 hours straight. That, as well as the previous attempt, required more fuel than what the car can hold normally.
And while most records of the sort rely on larger fuel tanks to get the job done, this time, they wanted a more outlandish solution to this issue. Therefore, they decided the best way to go about it, and not slow down for even a moment, would be to refill the tank while in motion, kinda like what fighter pilots do when they run out of fuel.
It really sounds easier than it is. That’s because the refueling couldn’t just be done by pouring gas from a canister while the two cars were sliding around just two feet away from each other. A complicated system that made sure the refueling was done in under one minute needed to be set up and that meant the F10 M5 that would line up next to the drifting M5 had to be thoroughly modified.
The changes included removing the rear seats, adding a tank and a massive fuel pump and the connection line for reaching the second car. Furthermore, the two had to be in absolute sync while refueling and keeping the two perfectly parallel for 50 seconds is a tricky bit. However, if all this would’ve functioned already we probably wouldn’t have heard about the whole thing in the first place. Therefore, stay tuned tomorrow to see how everything went down.
