In was a stunningly pointless feat that even made golf seem interesting, David Coulthard managed to catch a golf ball in his open top Mercedes SLS AMG Roadster that was struck by professional golfer, Jake Shepherd.
The ball was travelling at 178mph and was caught in Coulthard’s Mercedes 275 metres from where it was struck. To give the feat some credit, the action has been verified by Guinness World Records. The Mercedes SLS AMG Roadster is capable of 197mph and can achieve 0-62mph in just 3.8 seconds, so there was a fair bit of leeway if Jake had remembered to eat his spinach that morning.
Coulthard flew past the waiting Shepherd as he struck the ball, amazingly, Coulthard caught the golf ball on only their second attempt.
You might remember that a few years ago, Top Gear attempted a similarly pointless exercise when they tried to out-speed a golf ball hit by a pro-golfer. But this stunt narrowly wins (by a chin perhaps?) and claims the proud Guinness accolade of, er, “farthest golf shot caught in a moving car”. Well ok then, I had no idea the record hadn’t been broken and was up for grabs.
The catch took place at Dunsford Aerodrome in Surrey (where Top Gear is also sometimes filmed coincidentally) where Mercedes sought to give their involvement with golf’s Open Championship a higher profile with this unashamed publicity stunt. The video will be used in a viral campaign by Mercedes, so expect to see this in your work email within the next few days.
I have managed thus far to avoid any puns, but the bizarre record is already being called the ‘fore-wheel drive’. That’s probably as good as it will get.
Golfer and car image from getitwrighthere.com
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