Automobiles have been making headlines this week for breaking records around the globe.
In Barton, Vermont, Cadillac owners set a new world record on Wednesday for the longest Cadillac parade. A collection of 298 Cadillacs rode in the opening parade of the Orleans County Fair. The parade of cars spanned nearly a mile of roadway along State Route 2 and included Cadillac models of every era, from vintage to the new CTS Coupe.
The parade was held to honor the founder of Cadillac, Henry M. Leland, who was a native of Barton. Leland founded Cadillac in 1902.
The 298 car parade beat the existing 2002 record set in Leimuiderburg, the Netherlands, of 102 Cadillacs.
We now go from a long line of Cadillacs, to a long line of zeros, as a 1957 Ferrari 250 Testa Rossa Prototype sold at auction for $16.4 million at the annual Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance at Monterey Car Week in California on Saturday.
The closing bid by an unidentified buyer set the world record for the highest price ever paid for a car at auction.
The lucky (and very wealthy) buyer is now the owner of the first Testa Rossa ever built. Under the hood, a 3.0-liter V-12 engine produces 300 horsepower and is paired with a four-speed manual transmission.
The vintage Ferrari has a racing history that includes famous events such as Le Mans, Sebring, Targa Florio and the Nürburgring.
The previous record for the most expensive car sold at auction was set by another 1957 Testa Rossa that sold for $12 million in 2009.
And finally, a group of German engineering students from the University of Applied Sciences in Offenburg, set a new record for the longest distance traveled by an electric vehicle on a single charge.
The team’s vehicle, the Schluckspecht E, traveled a distance of 1,013 miles around a test track over the course of 36 hours and 12 minutes. It took a team of four drivers traveling at an average speed of 28 mph to complete the long distance feat. The single-seat vehicle is propelled by two wheel-mounted hub motors with power supplied by its 14 lithium-cobalt batteries.
While the Schluckspecht E is impractical for a daily driver, its lightweight material and wheel-mounted hub motors could find their way into the development of future electric vehicles.
The old record was set by the Japan Electric Vehicle Club in May 2010. Their vehicle traveled a distance of 623.23 miles in 27.5 hours on a single charge.
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