Porsche Taycan Turbo S Smashes Indoor Land Speed Record

Taycan Turbo S hit 102 miles per hour inside of the New Orleans Convention Center.

The Porsche Taycan Turbo S can accelerate to 60 miles per hour in just 2.6 seconds while the carbon ceramic brakes bring the all-electric sedan back to a stop in a hurry. This ability to both accelerate and stop as quickly as just about any production car in the world led Leh Keen to attempt the Indoor Land Speed Record. According to The Shop Mag, not only did Keen set the record, he destroyed the old record that was set by rally racer Tanner Foust during an episode of Top Gear America back in 2011.

Taycan Turbo S Land Speed Attempt

After Leh Keen chose the Porsche Taycan Turbo S for his Indoor Land Speed Record, he needed a proper venue. He picked the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center in New Orleans, Louisiana, which has the largest exhibit hall in the country. This venue allowed Keen the most possible indoor space to make his record run, but there is an issue. Like most convention centers, the floor is made of smooth, glossy concrete. It looks great, but to a high performance car, it might as well be ice. Fortunately, the high performance drive system coupled with advanced traction control technology allowed the Porsche Taycan Turbo S to get great traction.

“I didn’t really appreciate the scale of the record attempt until my first exploratory run. The surface is so unpredictable, so slick, that you have to have complete trust in your car. It truly was like ice – and you’re accelerating flat out, facing a really hard wall at the end. Suddenly, even in a massive space like the one we had, it seems very small,” said Keen after his record attempt. “I could feel the Taycan’s systems figuring it out, working so hard to keep me heading straight – it was such an impressive feat. To accelerate so hard on such an erratic surface was incredible. Not for a moment did I doubt I could do it.”

Setting the Record

Keen began with some low speed test runs to get a feel for the Taycan on the uniquely smooth surface, but when it came to the all-out record run, he only made one pass. You can watch in the video below as he accelerates from a stop to over 102 miles per hour inside of the New Orleans Convention Center, coming back down to a stop at a safe distance from the approaching wall.

That Guinness-approved top speed of 102.6 miles per hour smashed the record of 86 miles per hour, set by Tanner Foust back in 2011. Making this record run so impressive is the fact that Foust set the previous record in a race-ready rally car, while Keen went 18% faster with the electric production Porsche sedan. This will certainly be a hard record to beat without a larger venue, so the Porsche Taycan Turbo S record could stand for a long time.

In the meantime, enjoy the video of the record-setting run in the video below from the Porsche YouTube channel.

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Patrick Rall

"Before I was old enough to walk, my dad was taking me to various types of racing events, from local drag racing to the Daytona 500," says Patrick Rall, a lifetime automotive expert, diehard Dodge fan, and respected auto journalist for over 10 years. "He owned a repair shop and had a variety of performance cars when I was young, but by the time I was 16, he was ready to build me my first drag car – a 1983 Dodge Mirada that ran low 12s. I spent 10 years traveling around the country, racing with my dad by my side. While we live in different areas of the country, my dad still drag races at 80 years old in the car that he built when I was 16 while I race other vehicles, including my 2017 Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat and my 1972 Dodge Demon 340.

"Although I went to college for accounting, my time in my dad’s shop growing up allowed me the knowledge to spend time working as a mechanic before getting my accounting degree, at which point I worked in the office of a dealership group. While I was working in the accounting world, I continued racing and taking pictures of cars at the track. Over time, I began showing off those pictures online and that led to my writing.

"Ten years ago, I left the accounting world to become a full-time automotive writer and I am living proof that if you love what you do, you will never “work” a day in your life," adds Rall, who has clocked in time as an auto mechanic, longtime drag racer and now automotive journalist who contributes to nearly a dozen popular auto websites dedicated to fellow enthusiasts.

"I love covering the automotive industry and everything involved with the job. I was fortunate to turn my love of the automotive world into a hobby that led to an exciting career, with my past of working as a mechanic and as an accountant in the automotive world provides me with a unique perspective of the industry.

"My experience drag racing for more than 20 years coupled with a newfound interest in road racing over the past decade allows me to push performance cars to their limit, while my role as a horse stable manager gives me vast experience towing and hauling with all of the newest trucks on the market today.

"Being based on Detroit," says Rall, "I never miss the North American International Auto Show, the Woodward Dream Cruise and Roadkill Nights, along with spending plenty of time raising hell on Detroit's Woodward Avenue with the best muscle car crowd in the world.

Rall can be contacted at QuickMirada@Yahoo.com

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