Next Winter, Jaguar and Olympic Skier Want to Break World Speed Record on Skis

Jaguar waited until the end of this winter to make the announcement, thus giving itself plenty of time to prepare the event until the snow comes back. The plan is to make the runs sometime in "early 2017" at Jaguar's testing track in Sweden.

Using the F-Pace SUV would have been too easy, so instead Jaguar opted for a two-liter diesel all-wheel-drive XE sedan. Well, at least that's what the British car maker used for the test run featured in the clip below.

If you're thinking "meh, I've seen people on skis towed by vehicles before," you're not really getting the whole picture. This is a world record attempt, which means that Graham Bell, British skiing champion, would have to reach speeds of over 160 mph (260 km/h). Not only is the XE 20d AWD limited to 140 mph (225 km/h), but even if it weren't, it would have to drive this fast on snow. And that in itself has got to be some kind of a record.

To get to the record-breaking speed, Graham Bell will use the Jaguar to get going, but will then fire up a jetpack that will give him the necessary thrust to enter the history books. Not that he's not in them already...

Graham Bell is excited and calls this "the biggest challenge of his life," adding that he's been skiing for 45 years, just for perspective. But it's not just the man doing the actual work that's looking forward to this; Ian Anderton, Jaguar Land Rover thermal and aerodynamics manager, can hardly contain his enthusiasm either. "As engineering challenges go it doesn’t get more unique than this, so the next few months are going to be very exciting," he's quoted by The Verge as saying.

The video below is just a teaser for the actual attempt, where Bell will be wearing an aerodynamic suit, a jet pack on his back, and will be going four times as fast. Expect the scenery to look slightly different (not as many trees) and the road to have fewer bends in it, though.