Continental enters record books with world's fastest tire

Continental has been officially recognized as the maker of the world's fastest standard production road tire and has been entered into the Guinness Book of Records with a top speed of rating of 242mph (388km/h). The result was achieved using a 9ff modified Porsche owned by German Jan Fatthauer, who runs his own Porsche customizing company and the owner of the record breaking Porsche. The car also holds the record for the world's fastest street-legal car.

The particular tire is the ContiSportContact Vmax that was designed specifically to withstand the stresses of high speed driving, braking, accelerating and cornering. The major priority during its development was efficient tire cooling, whilst maintaining excellent handling and good grip in the wet.

Jan Fatthauer also set the record for the world's fastest convertible, again in a tuned Porsche fitted with ContiSportContact Vmax tires. The record was made back in October 2006, when he reached a speed of 237.8mph (380.5km/h).

Of course, everyone knows that the Bugatti Veyron can reach 253mph but it's not yet an official record according to the rules set out for such attempts. Porsche may even dethrone the Veyron in the unofficial stakes too, because 9ff is developing a new GT9 supercar that its makers claim capable of reaching 254mph (409km/h), 2km/h better than the Bugatti.