British gardener Kevin Nicks has smashed through his official record for the world’s fastest shed - by reaching a top speed of nearly 100mph / 161km ph. The 52 year-old, from Chipping-Norton in Oxfordshire, surpassed his previous record by 8mph on Saturday August 19, at the Wheelie and Top Speed Championships event at Elvington Airfield in York. Kevin was hoping to break the 100mph mark and only fell short due to high winds and adverse weather conditions. But thanks to the added nitrous boost he recently installed on the back of the unorthodox vehicle, Kevin was able to power through and officially break his existing record.
Video Credits:
Videographer / director: David Hare
Producer: Danny Baggott, Ruby Coote
Editor: James Thorne
Video Credits:
Videographer / director: David Hare
Producer: Danny Baggott, Ruby Coote
Editor: James Thorne
Category
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MotorTranscript
00:00They say it's mad, they say it's brilliant, I say it's fun, a lot of people say why, but the good thing for me, it just makes so many people smile.
00:16Kevin Nix has taken his love of sheds to a whole new level. He's taken one out on the road.
00:21This is the world's fastest shed. It's an idea I came up with, so I built it, got it all fully approved and road legal.
00:30I got into the racing events, the top speed events, and I travel all over the country racing it.
00:37I do it, I like it. Just kind of came up with the idea, I had a car sat there I was going to scrap, too good to scrap, came up with the idea, so set to and built it.
00:45The whole thing's completely steel-framed, so it's incredibly strong, but incredibly heavy, two and a quarter-tons.
00:53The classic car brigade sometimes frowned upon it, with things like, this can't be legal, but of course it is.
01:05The field for this unique road-worthy shed, which started life as a Volkswagen Passat, took owner Kevin £5,000 and seven months.
01:14And to get his engine really speedy, he's added a ride the surprising chemical into the mix to go that extra mile.
01:21I run it on nitrous when I'm racing. The horsepower's 200, but with the nitrous that adds an extra 75.
01:30Nitrous oxide, which many of you probably know that, it's actually laughing gas, and at certain times you get your revs high enough,
01:37you squirt it in, and it's an oxygenator. And I've got a wet system on here, so it adds that and fuel to give it an extra 75 horsepower.
01:49Here it is, all the original cars just inside it here. You've got a complete steel frame right the way around it, steel under here.
01:572.8 V6 petrol, and here's the nitrous system here, which goes on, it's all underneath this cowling.
02:06Kevin is currently on a charity drive, taking his shed all the way from Land's End to John O'Groats, to raise money for a local hospice.
02:14Today, he's halfway, up in Yorkshire, at Elvington Races, hoping to smash his original record of 88 miles per hour, by reaching 100 miles an hour.
02:26But will he make it?
02:27Didn't quite get to the 100 miles an hour out there, but I was close. 96.831 miles an hour in a two and a quarter tonne shed isn't bad, is it?
02:52No idea what the future holds for this one. I'm incredibly proud of building it, for the fun that we've had in it, my daughter and I, the places it's taken us, the people that I've met.