Elba, 42, hit a top speed of 180.361 mph – the existing record was 174.8 mph – behind the wheel of a Continental GT Speed. All rights reserved. You may be able to find more information about this and similar content at piano.io, The Stealthy Art of High-End Car Sound Systems, The Rolling Lab That Tested Benz's Greatest Cars, Keep These Items in Your Car for an Anytime Picnic. That record stood for 88 years… until this week. The Wire actor Idris Elba this weekend broke a speed record in Wales. Idris Elba, star actor of the The Wire and Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom, went for a drive Sunday on a beach in Wales. Transcript for Idris Elba Sets New Speed Record. Elba achieves an average speed of 180.361mph to beat record set by Sir Malcolm Campbell in 1927. The seven-mile stretch of Pendine Sands fit the bill perfectly. Rather than starting from a dead stop, the driver is allowed to get up to speed before entering the timed zone. © 2020 Cable News Network. CNN Sans™ & © 2016 Cable News Network. Elba has been married three times: first to Hanne "Kim" Nørgaard (from 1999 to 2003) and then to Sonya Nicole Hamlin (for four months in 2006). Morningstar: © 2019 Morningstar, Inc. All Rights Reserved. The record, if broken, would supersede The Wire star Idris Elba’s Flying Mile speed record, of 180.361mph, set at Pendine in 2015 in his 650bhp Bentley Continental GT Speed as part of a TV documentary. Here's where history left a nice little bit of coincidence, though: The car that Sir Malcolm Campbell used to set that long-standing 1927 record was the Napier-Campbell Blue Bird, a gargantuan open-cockpit streamliner that was the second in a long succession of speedsters named Blue Bird. Standard & Poor's and S&P are registered trademarks of Standard & Poor's Financial Services LLC and Dow Jones is a registered trademark of Dow Jones Trademark Holdings LLC. Idris Elba's Bentley is also powered by a W-12, albeit one with a different cylinder arrangement (two 15-degree V-6 engines sharing a crankshaft with a 72-degree spread between them). He won a Screen Actor’s Guild Award for Best Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture for his role in Beasts of No Nation (2015). Hollywood star Idris Elba smashed an 88-year-old driving record by travelling at 180.361mph over a measured mile. Use the HTML below. Just a nice little bit of history repeating itself. As if Idris Elba had to prove any further that he'd make a perfect James Bond.. The test is run twice within an hour, once each in opposite directions. The British actor teamed up with Bentley on May 7 to break the British land speed record known as the "Flying Mile." Market indices are shown in real time, except for the DJIA, which is delayed by two minutes. Yes, it's entirely safe to assume that Bentley and Elba sought out a record they knew the Continental GT Speed could break. Dow Jones: The Dow Jones branded indices are proprietary to and are calculated, distributed and marketed by DJI Opco, a subsidiary of S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC and have been licensed for use to S&P Opco, LLC and CNN. They wed on 26 April 2019 in Marrakesh. The two-door Bentley is powered by a 626 horsepower 12 cylinder engine and has a top speed of 206 miles per hour. Elba was driving a brand new Bentley Continental GT Speed, a luxury model car with a starting price of $234,000, and managed to rip across the … The British land speed record is the fastest land speed achieved by a vehicle in the United Kingdom, as opposed to one on water or in the air. Elba began a relationship with Somali-Canadian Sabrina Dhowre in early 2017. Golden Globe winner Idris Elba just made the ultimate case for being the next James Bond. Idris Elba may or may not get a chance to play James Bond, but he certainly drives like him. For the latest business news and markets data, please visit CNN … Elba in the GT Speed obliterated that, blasting through the one-mile stretch at a maximum velocity of 180.361 mph. If you need another reason to obsess over Idris Elba, he just broke a nearly 90-year "flying mile" speed record in the UK on Thursday.In the "flying mile," a car's speed is timed between two points one mile apart from each other. Business. Okay, at first blush, this seems kind of like a meaningless publicity stunt: TV star and multiple People Magazine "Sexiest Men Alive" honoree Idris Elba hops into a brand-new, immensely powerful super-coupe and obliterates a speed record set when George V was still king and Charles Lindbergh had just landed in Paris. A few years later, he became the first person to drive a car at over 300 miles per hour, when he drove over the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah in a 2,500 horsepower car called the Bluebird in 1935. The couple became engaged on 10 February 2018, during a screening of his film Yardie at an East London cinema. Title: Idris Elba: King of Speed (2013– ) 8.2 /10. Bentley announced that British actor Idris Elba broke a land speed record by reaching an average speed of 180.361 mph over one mile on Pendine Sands in south Wales. Most stock quote data provided by BATS. Factset: FactSet Research Systems Inc.2019. The car Elba drove was a standard production car and was not modified for the test, according to Bentley. Elba achieved an average speed of 180.361 mph (290.263 km/h). Sitting behind the wheel of a new Bentley Continental GT Speed, Elba hit a top-speed of 290.26Km/h on Pendine Sands, Wales. This transcript has been automatically generated and may not be 100% accurate. Parry-Thomas each held the top speed two more times between 1924 and 1927. According to CNN Money, Elba smashed an 88-year-old "flying mile" speed record, in which a car's speed … Driving the new Continental GT Speed on a beach in Wales, the UK award-winning actor Idris Elba broke the historic 'Flying Mile' UK wheel-driven land speed record set by Sir Malcolm Campbell in 1927. Campbell … In doing so, he broke a 90-year United Kingdom "flying mile" speed record. By a quirk of history, Pendine Sands provided just such a record—with the added benefit of being in Great Britain. Want to share IMDb's rating on your own site? For his upcoming Discovery Channel series Idris Elba: No Limits, which debuts this summer, Elba took his Bentley out for a go, and averaged 180.4 miles per hour over the full mile stretch, and hit a top speed of 186.4 miles per hour as he shot past the second marker. The record run was done for a new Discovery Channel series, Idris Elba: No Limits, which will air in July. Idris Elba is an actor with many talents, one of which is apparently driving really fast. multiple People Magazine "Sexiest Men Alive" honoree, a brand-new, immensely powerful super-coupe, another unsuccessful challenge in 1927 by Giulio Foresti, a 246.09 mph record in Verneuk Pan, South Africa, once the most powerful engine in the world. In the "flying mile," a car's speed is timed between two points one mile apart from each other. Eventually, drivers gravitated to the wide open expanses of Daytona Beach and the Bonneville Salt Flats, though Sir Malcolm set a 246.09 mph record in Verneuk Pan, South Africa in 1931 that stood for more than a year. Audi Says No More Internal Combustion Engines, The Latest Volume of the New Road & Track Is Here. Road & Track participates in various affiliate marketing programs, which means we may get paid commissions on editorially chosen products purchased through our links to retailer sites. The Napier aspect of the name came from the Blue Bird's engine, a 12-cylinder aircraft motor that was once the most powerful engine in the world. All times are ET. All rights reserved. The award-winning actor achieved … All content of the Dow Jones branded indices © S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC 2019 and/or its affiliates. Driving a Bentley Continental GT Speed, Elba averaged 180.4 miles per hour over the full mile and hit a top speed of 186.4 miles per hour as he shot past the second marker. Pendine Sands was taken over by Britain's Ministry of Defense in WWII, with public vehicle use on the beach banned until 2010. On the show, he broke a land speed record, drove a dragster, and piloted an airplane in his quest for speed. Piloting a Bentley Continental GT Speed on the Pendine Sands in Wales, Elba was able to hit an independently confirmed top speed of 180.361 mph (290.263 km/h). Idris Elba breaks "Flying Mile" speed record from 1927 The star did 180 mph in a Bentley Continental GT to topple Sir Malcom Campbell's 88-year-old record at Pendine Sands in Wales. Sir Malcolm set a new record in February 1927 with a speed of 174.22 mph; The next month, Parry-Thomas suffered a fatal crash at Pendine Sands when his car went out of control at an estimated 170 mph. Disclaimer. Idris Elba is officially the fastest actor in Hollywood.. So while the land speed record rose higher and higher, topping out with Andy Green's ThrustSSC run of 760.343 mph in 1997, the record at Pendine Sands remained a remarkable but no longer world-beating 174.8 mph. We may earn a commission through links on our site. Its tightly packed sands provide a smooth open surface with plenty of space in which to safely reach high speeds. The last flying mile record in the U.K. had been set in 1927 by motor racing journalist Sir Malcolm Campbell who flew past the second marker at 174.2 miles per hour in a specially built Napier-Campbell Blue Bird race car. Stick with us here, though, because there's a very cool parallel to all of this, and it's something that even Bentley didn't think to highlight. The beach on which Elba drove, Pendine Sands in southern Wales, has historically been used for record speed runs. Which means that, when Elba put the hammer down, he deposed a W-12 with another W-12. He was the first of many drivers to die while pursuing a speed record. Sir Malcolm was the first to set a flying mile record at Pendine Sands, with a 1924 run that set the bar at 146.16 mph. The defending champion of the Flying Mile was Sir Malcolm Campbell, whose two-way average of 174.8 mph has gone unchallenged since 1927. Our product picks are editor-tested, expert-approved. A 90 year old record that was beaten at just 180 mph? That's a sizable advantage in favor of the British star. Discovery Channel show called “Idris Elba: No Limits,” and Elba drove a Bentley Continental GT Speed, reaching a top figure of 186.4 mph. Yesterday British actor Idris Elba broke a ninety year old speed record on a British beach in a very modern Bentley GT3…and it got us thinking. The stunt was filmed in Wales as part of a U.K. This, in turn, broke Sir Malcolm's record of 281.31Km/h - set 88 years ago in his legendary Napier-Campbell Blue Bird. After Parry-Thomas's death, and another unsuccessful challenge in 1927 by Giulio Foresti (who miraculously walked away after his car rolled at an estimated 150 mph), land speed record seekers sought out other venues. Speed racer Zef Eisenberg maintained an average speed of … Chicago Mercantile Association: Certain market data is the property of Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. and its licensors. He has two children: a daughter with Kim and a son with former girlfriend Naiyana Garth. The driver is also allowed to get up to speed before entering the timed zone. If it seems silly, it's because this was not in any way a fair fight. British car, British star, British sands; it's almost enough to make you hum "God Save the Queen.". In the early 1900s, when the pioneers of motor racing first sought glory in the form of maximum velocity, standard roads and race tracks soon became inadequate.