The previous world record for reverse parallel parking has been shattered. Before this week, the record stood at a combined 35 centimeters between the car and the vehicles front and behind, a yawning chasm large enough to sail the entire Nimitz-class aircraft carrier fleet, ten cruise ships, and, of course, YO MOMMA through. But now, it stands at the positively minuscule 34 centimeters, a whole one centimeter shorter.
You can barely fit anything through that space.
The record was set by Alastair Moffat in front of the people at Guinness for maximum verification.
But you know what? This can be even more impressive. Moffat did it in an original Mini, and while that’s pretty neat in its own right, it’s not too crazy. I’m not saying I could do it, but the Mini’s short wheelbase lets it pivot on a dime, enabling the spin necessary for the parking job. And if I’m understanding the record correctly, that means there was still more than a foot of combined distance between Moffat’s Mini on either side, or, to put it more simply, there was more than six inches of clearance between the record-breaking car and the car in front and the car in back.
What I’m saying is, I wanna see this in a Chevy Suburban.
Contact the author at ballaban@jalopnik.com.
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