Watch the Porsche Cayenne Set a World Record by Towing an Airbus A380
Porsche is laying claim to a new world record, but not for its sports cars lapping a race track.
The brand has set a Guinness World Record title for the heaviest aircraft pulled by a production car after a Cayenne diesel pulled all 115-tonnes of Airbus A380 a full 42 meters (137 feet). The plane was hooked up to a special attachment which itself was hooked into the Cayenne’s standard tow bar.
This particular Cayenne was powered by 4.1-liter V8 diesel making 385 horsepower and 626 lb-ft of torque.
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A second Cayenne model, a Turbo S, packing a 570-hp gas V8 also completed the same pull as the diesel model.
Porsche also pointed out that the same Cayenne models that performed the towing test were then driven back to Germany in fine operating condition.
While it certainly looks impressive in photos, towing massive loads with small vehicles isn’t exactly a huge feat of engineering. None of the weight of the plane is transferred to the Cayenne’s suspension, so all the SUV has to do is get the plane moving. This definitely takes a lots of torque, but that is it.
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Stephen covers all of the day-to-day events of the industry as the News Editor at AutoGuide, along with being the AG truck expert. His truck knowledge comes from working long days on the woodlot with pickups and driving straight trucks professionally. When not at his desk, Steve can be found playing his bass or riding his snowmobile or Sea-Doo. Find Stephen on <A title="@Selmer07 on Twitter" href="http://www.twitter.com/selmer07">Twitter</A> and <A title="Stephen on Google+" href="http://plus.google.com/117833131531784822251?rel=author">Google+</A>
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So what is the torque output of the tractors that usually do this much faster?
Yeah, it may have been unharmed now, but I bet the life of that transmission was halved.