CAR sets new hybrid speed world record in Infiniti M35h

Infiniti M35h Hybrid (2011) long-term test review

CAR Magazine has set a new Guinness World Record for an acceleration run in a hybrid car. Associate editor Tim Pollard drove an Infiniti M35h hybrid to record a 13.9sec time over the standing quarter mile - as quick as a Lamborghini Countach would've been in the 1980s. You can read the full four-page report in the new October 2011 issue of CAR Magazine on sale this week, but for now watch the video recording the record run at Santa Pod, the home of European drag racing. And click here for a photo gallery of the action on the day.

And here are some behind-the-scenes photos at our world record attempt at Santa Pod's world-famous quarter mile drag strip. Never before has a land speed record been set with such peace and quiet

CAR Magazine turned up at a soaking wet Santa Pod in Bedfordshire. Normally you'd find 10,000bhp dragsters here. We turned up in a whispering hybrid car and a suite of rain sweepers

Our associate editor Tim Pollard is colour blind. That's why he looks a tad perplexed by the Christmas tree startline lights at Santa Pod. Green for go, Tim, green for go!

CAR's new long-termer: the £46,840 Infiniti M35h. It might be brand new, but we're about to rag it to within an inch of its life at Santa Pod. It's the recommended run-in procedure in the manual

The Infiniti M35h pairs a 302bhp V6 with a 67bhp electric motor. Which is why Infiniti claims it's the fastest accelerating hybrid in the world. Ner-ner, ner-ner-ner  Porsche Panamera Hybrid!

We brought along a proper hotrod to see what a real dragster can do. Terry Riddle's 1930s Plymouth five-window coupe replica musters 400bhp from its Chevy small-block V8, runs twelve-point-something quarter miles

That's CAR's fastest run of the day: 13.896sec for the quarter mile at Santa Pod, in a rare dry spell. That's on a par with a 1980s Lamborghini Countach, that is

The man from Guinness World Records wrestles Pollard for the keys to the Infiniti M35h. Now officially the world's fastest hybrid car. Read our ongoing long-term test updates every month in CAR Magazine

And there's the proof. Pollard plans to hang this next to his baked-bean-bath endurance record certificate in the downstairs loo

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