evo's ice drifting world record: behind the scenes

evo and Skoda’s record-breaking connection goes back to 2011, when contributing editor Richard Meaden drove a specially prepared Octavia vRS to a new Southern California Timing Association class record at Bonneville Speed Week. Achieving a two-way average of 227.080mph, the record stood for some nine years and gained Meaden membership of the SCTA’s ‘200MPH Club’. He still has the red cap to prove it.

Following this successful record attempt – which was timed to celebrate the 10 years of Skoda’s vRS performance models – there was a plan to try and regain the record in 2021, but this was abandoned due to ongoing Covid travel restrictions. 

> That time we hit 227mph in a Skoda Octavia

Thankfully the urge to set new records never went away. With the introduction of Skoda’s first EV vRS model - the Enyaq iV vRS - Skoda UK had the perfect excuse to mark the occasion, and so the decision was made for an attempt on a very different record; the Guinness World Record for the Longest Continuous Drift on Ice. Given the current record was set by a petrol-powered Subaru Impreza WRX, a successful attempt by the Skoda-evo team would also establish a new EV record.

For Meaden it was a welcome opportunity: 'The Bonneville record project is still one of the best things I’ve ever done, so I jumped at the chance to be part of another record attempt with Skoda. Much like Bonneville, the ice record was very much a leap into unknown territory. We had no opportunity to test ahead of the trip to Sweden, so weren’t sure how the Enyaq vRS would behave on the ice. Fortunately, once we settled on the right combination of studded tyres it made a surprisingly good drift car, but there was still a lot to learn about the ice and getting dialled-in to how the Enyaq needed to be driven'.

Spoiler Alert: the record attempt was successful, the Enyaq vRS powersliding around the ice circle for 7351.344 metres (or a little over 4.5 miles). If you’re a regular evo reader you’ll know Meaden is no stranger to drifting cars, but as he freely admits, setting this new GWR was uniquely challenging: 'After our first practice day it hit me that this wasn’t going to be quite as easy as I thought. By the end of the second day I basically never wanted to slide a car ever again. Things improved when I managed to string together a decent run that got respectably close to the existing record, but the mounting pressure of having everyone there (including an official judge from Guinness World Records) was the toughest thing to deal with. The relief when I finally managed to exceed the existing record distance – and have it verified by Guinness – was huge. From that point on each run was a lot more fun. If the lake hadn’t started to melt I’d probably still be there now!'

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