Idris Elba Breaks Speed Record

Idris Elba Breaks Speed Record

Actor Idris Elba star of The Wire and Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom and general BAMF set a record by breaking the speed record for the UK Flying Mile.  

According to CNN.com:

In the "flying mile," a car's speed is timed between two points one mile apart from each other. Rather than starting from a dead stop, the driver is allowed to get up to speed before entering the timed zone. The test is run twice within an hour, once each in opposite directions.

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.

The two-door Bentley is powered by a 626 horsepower 12 cylinder engine and has a top speed of 206 miles per hour. The car Elba drove was a standard production car and was not modified for the test, according to Bentley.

The record run was done for a new Discovery Channel series, Idris Elba: No Limits, which will air in July.

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.