You probably remember exactly one month ago today we brought you news that Bentley had smashed the ice speed record with its Continental Supersports convertible? It even released a commemorative, special edition Continental Supersports Ice Speed Record convertible to celebrate the achievement. Well, the record’s gone.
The car that officially broke the record was an Audi RS6, although Audi (a sibling of Bentley under the Volkswagen Group family) had nothing to do with the record run.
Finnish tyre manufacturer Nokian Tyres staged the record-breaking event on a 14km track on the frozen Gulf of Bothnia in Oulu, Finland, eventually taking the title by less than one kilometre per hour (331.610km/h vs 330.695km/h). The RS6 merely went along for the ride.
Nokian – which has a testing facility 300km north of the Arctic Circle – said in a statement it simply wanted to prove it produced the fastest winter tyre in the world.
“We wanted to take the record back to us because Bentley used competitor´s tyres, and we, of course, could not let that be.”
The record-breaking Bentley used Pirelli SottoZero II tyres to complete the run.
“As for the car, we just used one of our own high-speed test cars (which happened to be an Audi RS6). So, Audi has not taken part in this attempt in any way. Also, there are no separate records for tyres, cars or drivers, etc., just one ‘Fastest Car on Ice’.”
So it appears the game has shifted. Apparently the car and the driver are less important than the rubber separating them from the ice. We’ll wait and see whether Bentley, or Pirelli, or another entrant altogether, can topple the latest record set by Nokian.
