Porsche helps break European bicycle land speed record

26/9/2018

British cyclist, Neil Campbell, has become the fastest European ever on a bicycle, reaching a top speed of 149 mph and achieving it in the slipstream of a Porsche Cayenne Turbo.

The record attempt took place at Elvington Airfield in Yorkshire. Forty years after Jean-Claude Rude attempted to set a new speed record behind a Porsche 935 Turbo, Neil Campbell used the slipstream of the Porsche Cayenne Turbo to beat his own record of 135 mph, set in June.

The Porsche Cayenne Turbo was ideally suited to the task with it being large enough for both the bicycle and rider to get behind, yet with the ability to accelerate very quickly and sustain high speeds. With a top speed of 177 mph, the Cayenne Turbo is powered by a turbocharged 4.0-litre V8 engine producing 550 hp and 770 Nm of torque and has the capacity to accelerate from 0 to 62 mph in 4.1 seconds and to 100 mph in just over 9 seconds.* A rig was mounted to the back of the car to disrupt the airflow, enabling the Porsche to use all its 550 hp to exceed 150 mph, as it travelled down the short runway.

After the event Neil Campbell said: “The acceleration of the Cayenne was incredible – it was like being strapped to a rocket. I was pedalling throughout, harder and harder, before I released from the car at just over 100 mph and got my head down and gave it all I could. All the time the Cayenne was right ahead of me, clearing the air – it was so stable.”

For more information on the Cayenne Turbo contact our Porsche Centre.

*where it is safe and legal to do so i.e. a track or test facility.

Cayenne Turbo: Fuel consumption combined 11.9 – 11.7 l/100 km; CO2 emissions 272 – 267 g/km.