Everyone loves a world record. But how well do you know your motoring worldies? We’ve trawled the record books and come up with 10 fiendishly crafty facts to test your knowledge. And even if you don’t get them all right, you’ll certainly arm yourself with some top trivia.
Results
Bad luck. There were some hard questions in this quiz but hopefully you’ve enjoyed it and learned some trivia.
#1. How much did the world’s most expensive personalised number plate cost?
In 2016 a buyer in Dubai bought the number plate D5 for £7.3m. It makes the most expensive UK plate – 25 O – appear cheap at £518,480.
#2. What's the top speed of the world’s fastest production car?
The first production car to set a record managed it at just 12mph. But that was 1894. The Koenigsegg Agera RS (above) holds the current record at 277.87mph. The official Guinness World Records fastest car is the Bugatti Veyron 16.4 Super Sport at 267.86mph.
#3. How much is the world’s largest ever speeding fine?
The whopping £540,000 fine was slapped on a Swedish driver who handed over his licence after being clocked at 180mph in Switzerland. His Mercedes SLS supercar was going at two and a half times the speed limit.
#4. What is the most expensive used car ever to be sold?
In 2018, a Ferrari 250 GTO, one of only 36 built, sold at auction in Monterey California for £37.5 million. But that might sound cheap soon. Experts are expecting 250 GTO prices to exceed £100m by the end of the decade.
#5. How many miles was the world’s longest traffic jam?
Guinness World Records claims the longest traffic jam was 109 miles on a French motorway between Paris and Lyon in 1980. However, one traffic jam in China was 62 miles long and believed to have lasted for more than 12 days with some drivers travelling at just 1mph and having to sleep in their cars.
#6. What length is the longest production car you can buy in the UK currently?
The Rolls-Royce Phantom VIII EWB (above) is the longest production car currently on sale in the UK at 5.98m.
#7. What’s the largest number of people ever crammed into a car?
In 2015, 41 people somehow squeezed into a Toyota RAV4 in Krasnoyarsk, Russia.
#8. A Volvo 1800S registered in the US has covered more miles than any other car. How many?
The car was owned from new by American Irv Gordon. His 125-mile daily commute for 10 years helped pile on the miles and he was awarded the Guinness World Record in 2014 when the car had just passed 3 million miles. Sadly, Irv passed away in 2018 after covering 3,250,257 miles but his Volvo is believed to be still going strong.
#9. What’s the longest distance a radio-controlled car has travelled on a single battery charge?
In 2016, a team in Germany drove a radio-controlled car for 66 miles. The record was set in tribute to Bertha Benz who drove the same distance in 1886 in a full-size car. At the time, it was the furthest a car had ever driven.
#10. In 2011, comedian Rowan Atkinson made what’s believed to be the biggest insurance claim ever for a car. How much?
The claim was for £900,000 after a serious crash in a McLaren F1 supercar (above). The rear end (where the engine is) of Atkinson’s prized McLaren needed a complete rebuild, taking the best part of a year. He later sold the car for £8m.
Good newsletter – loved the quiz, although2/10 is not good, but good fun!!
Crazy cars in this supposedly Green Age
Too True
Learn something new everyday, good fun
Interesting, good bit of fun on dark winters night during lockdown. Thanks
Wow. Do I win the Ferrari Spyder ?
MJG.
I enjoyed this trivia quiz, thank you.
It was interesting, fun, challenging and improves your knowledge.
Good questions for 5.00 am in the morning.
A
not worried i could not afford one of them
Very interesting
i got 50%. not bad i thought
I didn’t get my results?
good fun thank you
Well, I thought that I might have got one right.
Guesstimations every one. No doubt there will be some amazing answers.
Gets you thinking, enjoyed, only got 4 right…