Nissan and drift champion Masato Kawabata has set a Guinness World Record for the fastest-ever drift in a tweaked 2016 Nissan GT-R.

WHO KNEW IT WAS A THING? Japanese drift champion, Masato Kawabata has set a Guinness World Record for the fastest ever drift.

The record was broken with a speed of 304.96 km/hr and 30-degrees angle using a specially-tuned 2016 Nissan GT-R. The record was set during a special event that took place at Fujairah International Airport, UAE. Fujairah International Airport was strategically chosen for its 3km long airstrip… Avalon Airport in Melbourne has a 3km runway. Idea?!

To get the GT-R to move fast enough, Nissan turned to its bonkers tuning arm, Nismo which clearly fed the engine steroids, boosting output to more than 1000kW. The all-wheel drive system was bypassed so that all of that power went straight to the rear wheels.

“Once again, Nissan has broken a Guinness World Record title and has made international history for the fifth time in the Middle East,” said Samir Cherfan, Managing Director of Nissan Middle East.

“The Nissan GT-R is one of the world’s most iconic supercars, proving time and again the incredible breadth of its capabilities, and has clearly demonstrated its performance leadership by beating the best drift cars out there. The fact that this achievement was set here in the UAE makes it even more special for our region. Setting this incredibly difficult world record was a clear demonstration of the excitement we are bringing to the Middle East with the Nismo brand.”

While Nismo sorted out the engine, the rest of the car was prepared by tuning house GReddy Trust. Its technicians worked on the GT-R setup on site (at the runway) in the three days leading up to the event and had only three attempts to break the record as per strict guidelines set by Guinness World Records.