Is there anything better than a big ol’ smoky burnout? Few would argue against it, and down here in Oceania the bigger the burnout the better your reputation. There’s probably few who do it better than what can be seen across the ditch at the annual Summernats festival. Built around blowing tyres and demoing the ozone layer, the burnouts are legendary and even record breaking — but therein lies the issue. Summernats currently holds the Guinness World Record for the largest simultaneous car-tyre burnout, with 126 cars — a mammoth effort and one that generated a shit ton of smoke. It’s that smoke that Guinness World Records is citing as the reason the organization will no longer “monitor the record” as it “encourages the emission of damaging gases in a bigger proportion as the record is broken”. In a letter sent to the American organizers of the most recent record attempt, the officiators said that the record was officially rested on 2 October. While that means Summernats will retain the official title for the foreseeable future.
