Five gamers have set a new Guinness World Record by racing a Ford GT in Forza Motorsport 6 for more than two days solid.
The new Guinness World Record holders for ‘longest video marathon on a racing game’ raced the virtual Ford GT for 48 hours 29 minutes and 21 seconds, getting through industrial-level supplies of sweets and energy drinks in the process.
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One of them, Cara Scott, was a Brit: also driving were Helene Cressot from France, Johannes Knapp from Germany, Italian Andrea Lorenzo Facchinetti and Spain’s Jesus Sicilia Sanchez, who all survived the two-day marathon by taking power naps (oh, and drinking 32 energy drinks, 146 bottles of water and 47 bottles of soft drinks).
The marathon challenge took place at Gamescom in Cologne, Germany, and saw the gamers each drove 603 laps of the simulated Le Mans 24 Hours circuit. Compare that to Ford GT racer Stefan Mucke, who waved off the race: he drove for ‘just’ 9 hours 5 minutes and 136 laps at the real Le Mans 24 Hours this year.
But the gamers haven’t had it easy, he said. “Just like driving at the real Le Mans, this achievement required extreme levels of concentration, attention to detail, and most importantly endurance – because they had to keep going for twice as long as we did.”
“Two days of racing is a superlative effort,” agreed Guinness World Records official adjudicator Lena Kuhlmann. “The endurance of the gamers is remarkable. They were engaged, concentrating and having fun even after the record was broken.”
Neatly, Ford also stationed a real GT in view, which Kuhlmann reckoned was an important touch: it helped “keep the gamers from getting completely immersed in the virtual world”.
We’re also sure the 3kg of sweets the gamers munched through helped keep them alert, although we don’t envy the comedown from the sugar rush…