7 Cars Featured in the Guinness Book of World Records

A 30.5 m (100 ft) long 26-wheeled limousine was designed by Jay Ohrberg of Burbank, California, USA. It has a swimming pool with diving board and a king-sized water bed. It is designed to drive as a rigid vehicle or it can be changed to bend in the middle. Its purpose was for use in films and displays.

The highest speed ever reached in a diesel-powered vehicle is 563.418 km/h* (350.092 mi/h), by Andy Green (UK) driving the JCB DIESELMAX at Bonneville Salt Flats, Utah, USA, on 23 August 2006.

Louis Borsi of London has built and driven a 9.5kg 21lb car with a 2.5cc engine. It is capable of 25km/h 15mph.

In October 2013 a 1963 Ferrari 250 GTO racer became the world’s most expensive car, selling to a private buyer for $52 million (£32 million). The red competition car, formerly owned by the Greenwich, Connecticut-based collector Paul Pappalardo, was acquired by an unidentified buyer in a private transaction, according to the Bloomberg news agency.

The Swiss company Rinspeed has created the world’s first, real, submersible car called the “Squaba”. Displayed at the Geneva Motor Show 6-16 March 2008, the carsub is powered electrically by three rechargeable lithium-ion batteries: one for power on land and one for each of the twin propellers when on or in the water. The car design is based on the British Lotus Elise sports car and is open top for safety reasons, so that the occupants can easily get out in an emergency – hence they have to wear scuba gear to breathe. The car can drive straight into the sea and then float until a hatch is opened to allow water to flood the body and gradually sink the car. Underwater, it effectively flies at a depth of 10 metres.

The greatest engine capacity of a production car was 13.5 litres (823.8 cu in), for the US Pierce-Arrow 6-66 Raceabout of 1912-18, the US Peerless 6-60 of 1912-14 and the Fageol of 1918. Despite their massive size, these giants from the early days of automobiles were very inefficient compared to their modern counterparts. The Pierce-Arrow 6-66, despite having an engine more than 10 times the size of a modern 1,3 liter (79.3 cu in) hatchback, had roughly the same power output of 49kW (66bhp).

The record for the most fuel-efficient vehicle is 0.01857 litres of petrol for 100 km (15,212 mpg) and was achieved by PAC-Car II from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich, Switzerland, on the Shell Eco Marathon in the Michelin Technology Centre, Ladoux, France, on 26 June 2005.