Idris Elba Breaks 88-Year-Old Flying Mile Speed Record

Idris Elba, the British actor renowned for his roles in Luther and The Wire, broke the historic 'Flying Mile' UK land speed record set by Sir Malcolm Campbell in 1927.

By Kritika Sethi

1 mins read

Published on May 12, 2015

Highlights

Idris Elba, the British actor renowned for his roles in Luther and The Wire, broke the historic 'Flying Mile' UK land speed record set by Sir Malcolm Campbell in 1927. Before we delve into the details of the record, the 'Flying Mile' takes the average speed of a vehicle across two rolling-start runs of a mile each. 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, in turn, broke Sir Malcolm's record of 281.31Km/h - set 88 years ago in his legendary Napier-Campbell Blue Bird. The record was independently verified by the UK Timing Association. The record was broken in the Continental while the award-winning actor was filming for an upcoming Discovery Channel series, Idris Elba: No Limits though the beach in south Wales experienced some challenging tidal conditions at that time. Elba said, "I'm absolutely elated to have broken the 'Flying Mile' at Pendine Sands. It's an honour to have taken on the challenge, and to successfully follow in the footsteps of the illustrious Sir Malcolm Campbell." The Bentley Continental GT Speed is powered by the 6-litre twin-turbo W12 engine, with 626.31 horses and 820Nm on offer. This is mated to a new ZF 8-speed automatic transmission - the GT Speed despatches the zero-to-hundred sprint in 4.2s, on its way to a top-speed of 331Km/h.