Page 14 - IAV Digital Magazine #516

iAV - Antelope Valley Digital Magazine
Driver Breaks Indoor Land Speed Record In Electric Porsche
By Ben Hooper
Feb. 11 (UPI) -- A driver broke the indoor land speed world record when he reached a speed of 102.65 mph in his electric Porsche at a New Orleans conven- tion center.
Leh Keen, driving an all-electric Taycan Turbo S Porsche, said the car's quick accel- eration and pow- erful brakes were crucial to setting the Guinness World Record for the fastest speed achieved by a vehicle indoors.
Keen said the most complicated part of the record was dealing with the polished con- crete floor at the Ernest N. Morial Convention
Center in New Orleans.
"I didn't really appreciate the scale of the record attempt until my first exploratory run.
The surface is so unpredictable, so slick, that you have to have complete trust in your car," Keen said. "It truly was like ice -- and you're accelerat-
ing flat out, facing a really hard wall at the end. Suddenly, even in a massive space like the one we had, it seems very small."
He said despite the challenges, he was confident he would beat the record.
"To accelerate so hard on such an erratic surface was incredible. Not for a moment did I doubt I could do it," he said.
Keen's speed of 102.65 mph was enough to beat the previous record of 86.99 mph, which was set by Finnish driver Mikko Hirvonen in 2013.
iAV - Antelope Valley Digital Magazine