World titles are what rally drivers usually aim for, not world records.
But now, Andreas Mikkelsen has both.
The Norwegian – twice a world champion in Rally2 machinery – is seeking to get his WRC2 campaign back on track with Škoda at this week’s Rally Portugal. But while many of his rivals were hugging apexes at Rally Islas Canarias two weeks ago, he was holding a drift for over an hour and a half.
In collaboration with Xpeng, Mikkelsen now holds the world record for the longest drift in an electric vehicle, standing at 73.594km (or 45.729 miles).
“Do you remember these books, the Guinness World Record books?” he asks DirtFish.
We do.
“I always got that for Christmas,” Mikkelsen smiles. “So to have a record on my own now, that’s pretty cool.”
Mikkelsen flew to Shanghai after hatching a plan from home
The idea to achieve it was all Mikkelsen’s, who had a light bulb moment when watching YouTube one day.
“I came across this video on YouTube actually about a Porsche Taycan setting the world record of longest drift with an electric vehicle, which was for a marathon or 42 kilometers,” he shares.
“Next to Škoda I’m also doing some work with Xpeng in Norway, and they only have electric vehicles. So I thought: ‘Hmm, maybe it’s possible to try to beat this record because I think rally drivers, they know how to slide a car. They have a feeling for the car’.
“Xpeng has this model called the P7 – we don’t have it in Europe, but it’s like a sports car. So I was talking with Xpeng Norway to see if it was possible, and they connected with the team in China, and the global team, and they started to do some testing to see if it’s actually possible, because there’s many factors that you have to calculate here.
“The battery: can it survive? And not only the length of it, because you have so much friction from the tires. So first of all, [you have to consider] the temperature of the motor and the length [of the drift], and they saw quite quickly it was actually possible to beat this record. So there I was, suddenly on a flight down to Shanghai!”
It sounds simple, but like any record attempt there was no room for variables. Before even trying to make history, Mikkelsen and Xpeng tested a couple of different tracks to find the one with the lowest possible friction, but they also needed somewhere they could constantly spray with water.
Mikkelsen liked his Xpeng office - which was just as well considering how long he spent at the wheel!
“It makes it very tricky if, let’s say, the level of water is difficult or different around the track,” Mikkelsen points out. “So we found a place which was very constant and very low friction.”
That place was a long roundabout, which Mikkelsen drove around in an anti-clockwise direction; by no means a coincidence.
“Then you’re sitting on the inside of the corner [as the car was left-hand drive], which also makes it a bit easier,” he explains. “What I also did is make a playlist of music, because I think if you’re just sitting and concentrating really hard for that long, you can also get very tired.
“So I tried to find this balance of staying concentrated, but also staying a little bit relaxed. There’s all these small things that help you, and make a big difference.”
Driving for 1h33min, and 216 laps, in one sitting isn’t what rally drivers are generally used to. Their driving is normally spread over a larger period of the day. So how did Mikkelsen approach it?
“I just had to think that I’m going into this really, really, really long stage, and I just trued to keep the concentration as high as possible. Because on the test runs, I had quite a high heart rate – 150 average with 170 peak, which was quite high.
The track was constantly sprayed to reduce friction and help the car slide
“So actually I really focused as well on my breathing to try not to be too tense. On the run itself, my heart rate was 20-30 beats lower than on the test so I think I managed it quite well. But what was quite fun to see is when I passed the record, my heart rate dropped immediately.
“I was very much able to relax after that, which made it much easier. Of course when you’re getting closer to the record, you’re getting more nervous as well – you don’t wanna f*** it up!”
He didn’t. With 5% battery remaining, Xpeng’s engineers decided to call the run with the team battering the old record by almost double.
“That’s also a nice thing is that I really did my job well,” Mikkelsen adds. “I was not, let’s say, the limiting factor here. But I tell you, it was a lot of pressure! I brought the idea to Xpeng and they then set everything in motion to make this happen. If I messed it up and that would be really bad! So I’m very happy that we managed to do it.
“It was really, really nice and hopefully this record can stand for a very long time.”
Crunch time in WRC2
Mikkelsen is only 15th in WRC2 after missing the podium in his first two starts
Mikkelsen’s world record achievement is a nice boost after what’s been a difficult start to his WRC2 campaign.
Fourth in Safari after a puncture and a windshield washer bottle that emptied on the muddy opening stage, things got even worse in Croatia when three punctures on the first leg restricted him to 14th.
Rally Portugal is therefore a critical event for Mikkelsen who is currently just 15th in the championship.
“Portugal will be super important for us,” he says. “Of course, we go there to try to win and take a lot of points. So that’s crucial.
“For the championship you can take one rally away, but of course I have used that, the joker rally in Croatia. That means that for the rest of the season, we have to deliver good results.”
Mikkelsen believes Portugal has “always been a good rally for us” although he is yet to win it, either overall or in WRC2.
Portugal is a massively improtant event for Mikkelsen's championship
“I don’t feel, let’s say, any slower than before. I think we still have what it takes,” he states.
“In Croatia, we had the puncture very, very early already on stage three. But we had the pace of the front runners without really taking massive risks. So that’s promising, both on Tarmac and gravel. And let’s see in Portugal.
“It will be a very important rally for us. And yeah, we’re there to try to win, of course, but we’re not the only one who wants to win that rally. It will be a big fight, I’m sure.”
Mikkelsen’s chief rivals include Lancia’s Yohan Rossel, Roope Korhonen (Toyota), Gus Greensmith (Toyota) and Teemu Suninen (Toyota).
