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Watch A Porsche Cayenne Tow A 285-Ton Jumbo Jet

It’s not often that something being towed by a diesel excites me. And to be completely honest, it’s not often that a Porsche Cayenne excites me either.

This story is a little different however, as the diesel Porsche Cayenne in question has just successfully towed a 285-ton Air France Airbus. A380. Unfortunately I’m not James May so can’t tell you anything more about the A380 than a simple Google search would, so I’ll just give you the basics. It’s the largest passenger plane in the world, and it weighs more than 100 times the Porsche that pulled it. Crazy.

The Cayenne was complete standard, boasting only its 4.1-liter twin-turbo V8. This engine produces a not too shabby 385bhp, but the key statistic here is the torque which is 627lb ft strong. This gave the German SUV the ability to haul the aircraft 42 meters over Paris’s Charles de Gaulle Airport’s tarmac and straight into the record books along with it’s driver, Richard Payne.

Payne is the mastermind behind this success, and a Porsche GB technician.

“We don’t usually go this far to test the limits of our cars, but I think today we got pretty close. I could tell that it was working hard but the Cayenne didn’t complain and just got on with it. My mirrors were quite full of Airbus, which was interesting.

“Our cars can go a bit beyond what our customers might expect – they’re designed to be tough. But even so, what the Cayenne did today was remarkable – we drove the car here from London – and I plan to drive it home again, having towed an A380 in between.”

In fact, the attempt was so successful that it was repeated with the less torquey petrol Cayenne Turbo S as shown in the video above.

Pravin Patel was the adjudicator sent from Guinness World Records to witness the attempt.

“I’ve verified some amazing record attempts during my time, but watching a Porsche Cayenne tow one of the largest aircraft in the world definitely ranks as among the most spectacular.”

I’m not surprised, but I wonder how long it will take other automakers to attempt something even bigger and even more spectacular? Only time will tell, but from now on, I’m not going to turn my nose up at a diesel Cayenne. They’re truly incredible machines.

Alex Harrington

Alex started racing at a young age so certainly knows his way around a car and a track. He can just about put a sentence together too, which helps. He has a great interest in the latest models, but would throw all of his money at a rusty old French classic and a 300ZX. Contact: [email protected]

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