Stretched out on a tiny red car, a German student has broken the world record for the fastest speed reached on an electronic Bobby car - and he built it all himself!

Fulda student breaks world record

On the Hockenheimring racing circuit in Baden-Württemberg this week, Fulda Hochschule electrical engineering student Marcel Paul broke a world record. At 148,45 kilometres per hour, the 31-year-old from Hesse is now the record holder for the fastest speed achieved with an electronic Bobby car.

Hitting 148,45 km/h, Paul surpassed the previous world record by a whopping 70 km/h - though the previous record was not an original one, but one that had been shown in a YouTube video that had never been confirmed by the German Records Institute (RID).

According to a representative from the RID, Paul broke the world record on the first try. Three tries were allowed in total, but Paul’s luck didn’t last, with the second yielding problems with a measuring device. The student’s luck returned on the third go when he broke his own record again and got his best speed yet; the 148,45 km/h record.

Paul built his record-winning Bobby car

The Bobby car in question, which is based on a toy meant for children, was built by Paul and a fellow student, 23-year-old David Reimund. Weighing just 30 kilograms and just 70 centimetres long, the tiny car has its own metal base, engine and special tyres.

Paul and Reimund had been working on the vehicle since October and their professor, Tobias Müller, was standing on the sidelines with Paul’s mother to see the record being broken. 

“It was such a great feeling [...] it’s indescribable,” Paul said to ZDF in an interview after setting the record. “All of the work, since October until now was really worth it.”

Thumb image credit: ellinnur bakarudin / Shutterstock.com