Guinness World Record, Fastest Reverse Mile 1:15.18 established.
The Guinness World Record for the fastest mile in reverse was set, with a time of 1:15.18.
The record was set by Scott Berner on June 15, 2022 at NCM Motorsports Park, a race track attached to the National Corvette Museum in Bowling Green, Kentucky. Varner drove a C7 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray with a manual transmission. He used a manual because the speed in reverse is uncontrolled and reaches maximum rpm when the engine reaches maximum rpm per minute. Automatic cars have a defined speed in reverse.
Berner has a YouTube channel called "Always in Reverse" where he runs various cars in reverse to check their speeds. He averaged 52.1 mph in his record run. In a video of a Corvette he shot last November with the same car, he hit 54 mph on a public road.
According to records posted on the Guinness World Records website, Berner realized he could break the record after realizing that the previous record was a time he had already unofficially broken. In one of his videos, he records a slightly faster time, with a top speed of 56 mph at Kia Sorrento.
At least one other driver has set faster times in reverse without officially claiming the fastest mile record. Daniel Akut, then an Audi Formula E driver, set a 130 mph time in 2018 in the Schaeffler Group's electric Audi RS 3 touring car, but apparently no one had clocked a time faster than a mile.
It is possible to go too fast in reverse, at least as far as safety regulators are concerned; in 2017, a Mercedes-AMG G65 was recalled because the software that limits the maximum speed in reverse was not properly adjusted and could exceed the 16 mph limit considered safe, The recalled G65, powered by a twin-turbocharged 6.5-liter V-12, was claimed to accelerate from 0-60 mph in 5.3 seconds while moving forward.