Four-time Rally World Champion Juha Kankkunen driving a Valtra T234 tractor has set a Guinness World Record for the fastest tractor at 130.165km/h. On ice.
DRIVING FAST IN A machine that’s not really designed to do so can be scary hilarious. We’ve seen a JCB digger set a Guinness World Record at 116.82km/h and now rally icon Juha Kankkunen has set a world speed record driving a Valtra T234 tractor (186kW/1000Nm) at 130.165km/h. The previous record was 121km/h set by a home-modified tractor in Russia, whereas this Valtra T234 is, more or less, a production model.
The world record attempt took place back in February and was a joint effort between tractor maker Valtra and tyre company Nokian which wanted to promote its winter tyre for tractors, the Nokian (and take a breath) Hakkapeliitta TRI which, according to the guff, is “designed for single purpose: to give you all the grip, control and efficiency you need for demanding winter contracting”.
Kankkunen piloted the tractor to the world record speed on a snow and ice covered runway in Finland, the runway was 2.3 kilometres long, and required Kankkunen to enter the runway out of a curve to have enough room to hit the world record speed.
