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Porsche has set a world towing record with a road-standard Cayenne SUV, by towing a massive Airbus A380 super-jumbo at Paris Charles De Gaulle airport.
The fact that the Cayenne could tow the 285-tonne double-decker passenger 'plane over a distance of 42-metres breaks the previous heaviest towing record by a whopping 115-tonnes. Air France collaborated in the record, and set aside one of its vast hangers (big enough to hold one A380 or 3,000 Porsche Cayennes) for the job. A specially modified towing arm, which could connect the standard Cayenne tow-bar to the Airbus' nose landing gear, was created.
The Cayenne was driven by Porsche GB technician Richard Payne, who said that: "It did it - I'm so relieved! We don't usually go this far to test the limits of our cars but I think today we got pretty close. I could tell that it was working hard but the Cayenne didn't complain and just got on with it. My mirrors were quite full of Airbus, which was interesting. Our cars can go a bit beyond what our customers might expect - they're designed to be tough. But even so, what the Cayenne did today was remarkable - we drove the car here from London - and I plan to drive it home again, having towed an A380 in between. Credit should go to the team in Stuttgart who developed the car - they did a thorough job. I'm also very grateful to Air France and its engineers for their generosity in allowing me to tow their beautiful aircraft."
Gery Mortreux, Executive Vice President Air France Industries said: "like Porsche, Air France Industries KLM Engineering & Maintenance thrive on excellence and pushing engineering boundaries. It was an honour to host Porsche at our hangar at Charles de Gaulle, which is usually home to our engineers working on our fleet of 10 Airbus A380 - one of the most sophisticated aircraft in the world. This achievement is a new illustration of the way AFI KLM E&M is able to adapt to specific requirements, and the passion we put on every challenge we take. It was fun and exciting to watch the two machines together - our engineers were intrigued and impressed. Congratulations to Porsche on a remarkable achievement."
Pravin Patel, Adjudicator, Guinness World Records said: "I've verified some amazing record attempts during my time as a Guinness World Records adjudicator - watching a Porsche Cayenne tow one of the largest aircraft in the world definitely ranks as among the most spectacular. My congratulations go out to all those involved in achieving this remarkable feat."