Humanity is always prone to take risks in order to evolve and move on. And that’s what Masato Kawabata tried to do a little while ago. He is an expert driver, and his focus was on trying to drift at the highest possible speed.
He went to complete this stunt at the Fujairah International Airport and he did manage to succeed as well. He acquired the record of drifting at no less than 189.5 miles per hour. This is an insane speed for a regular driver, let alone for someone that’s drifting.
In order to put things in perspective, this is the speed that the Nascar sprint cup racers hit in a straightaway. Simply put, that is insanely fast and it’s doubtful that someone else will get to beat this record anytime soon.
Of course, a lot of preparation went into this particular stunt. The driver had a dedicated 2016 Nissan GTR that was particularly modified for this particular stunt. He had 3 attempts to go down the 1.8 mile airstrip and he drifted the car from 34 to 55 degrees of yaw.
Why is this a record? To put things into perspective, the previous record was of 134.5 miles per hour while going sideways and it was held by a Polish driver. That happened in 2013 though, and a lot of people though that no one will go faster. Improving that with almost 1.5 times the speed is astonishing, and it shows the commitment that Masato Kawabata had when it came to breaking the record.
Drifting is an important part of the Japanese car culture, so it’s easy to see why Masato Kawabata wanted to push this record and eventually make it his own. The Japanese are very proud drivers, and they always try to push the boundaries when it comes to giving the best possible value and quality. Nothing is impossible, that’s what you can see from this stunt.
But as you can imagine, the stunt that Masato Kawabata pulled was very dangerous. Although there were quite a lot of safety measures in place, you never know what can happen and when you can encounter some serious problems. This is why Masato Kawabata didn’t attempt the stunt earlier. Yet it seems that this was the best time to do it, as he finally claimed the title that he always wanted. It was definitely a huge challenge to do something like this, and we will most likely expect other drivers to give it a shot.
However, the current record is extremely hard to beat. Reaching this speed while drifting sideways is super challenging, and it shows the prowess that Masato Kawabata has behind the wheel. Whether we will see someone else that attempts this sort of thing or not, that can be very hard to say. But the challenge is set, and hopefully we will see even more drivers that try out this sort of thing. It’s certainly something truly impressive and astonishing, and this record will be super hard to pass!
Image Credits: Nissan
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