On Saturday 18th September I travelled to Essen in Germany to witness the largest parade of Mazda cars. The record to be broken was 249 cars, which belonged to New Zealand since the year 2005.
The event was held for Mazda’s 20th anniversary. The location of the event was very different as it took part in an old coal mine called “Zeche Zollverein Essen”.
When I arrived at the venue, Mazda MX-5 cars had already filled the area as far as the eye could see. The drivers were charged with enthusiasm while getting themselves prepared for the parade.
The number of attendants was known by the organizers prior to the event, since all the attendants had made online registrations beforehand. There were attendants from every generation and remarkably, many women drivers were present. According the Guinness World Records guidelines, the minimum distance of the parade had to be 3.2 km (2 miles) long and all vehicles had to be continuously moving. At the same time, the distance between two cars had to not more than two vehicle-lengths apart.
The record attempt started at 17.30 pm and was broadcasted live on Facebook.
The cars started moving in a parade. Incredibly, 13 Mazda owners came from Moscow, from about 2050 km. away!
There were other drivers from Italy, France, Sweden and Denmark too… This red Mazda is one of the first Mazda cars, manufactured in 1989.
During the parade, I stood at the finish line and counted the cars which passed by. Although a few cars had to be disqualified, eventually Germany took over the record from New Zealand with 459 cars
I presented the Guinness World Records certificate to the organizers Punkteins.de and Mazda’s Managing Director for Germany, with a ceremony on stage. It was a perfect organization event and the success was celebrated by everybody!
Source - guinnessworldrecords
