Every achievement, no matter how small, starts with a dream. For one engineer in Germany, it started with a passion for bobby-cars and a dream to hit the 88 mph (141.5 kph) speed needed for temporal displacement in the Back to the Future movies.
Marcel Paul is a student of electrical engineering at the Fulda University of Applied Sciences in Germany, and he's been a passionate bobby-car racer for years. Bobby-cars are push plastic kiddie cars made by BIG-Spielwarenfabrik since 1972, designed for toddlers and very young children. Unlike most kiddie cars, bobby-cars are smaller, which makes racing modified versions of them… well, you guessed it, trickier, more dangerous, and more thrilling.
So when Paul heard that someone on YouTube topped 60 mph (96.5 kph) in a modified bobby-car, he set out to build a car that would best that unverified record – and hopefully reach the same speed as the DeLorean that could travel back in time.
The result is a machine he calls the E-Bobby-Car, which is a tiny Porsche with an all-electric drivetrain that's just been recognized by the Guinness Book of World Records as the fastest of its kind in the world.
Photo: BobbyCarWorldRecords
The E-Bobby-Car actually set the Guinness record in August 2023 on the Parabolika section of the Hockenheimring racetrack in Germany, where it was able to achieve 148.454 kph (92.24 mph), becoming the world's fastest ride-on toy car (modified). If you know anything of how these Guinness records are handed out, you know that it takes some time between the moment they're set and certified, and the day they're entered officially into the Guinness Book of World Records.
So, while the tiny Porsche became the world's fastest kiddie car in August, it was just this month that it was officially recognized as such. But the E-Bobby-Car was actually famous long before either of these milestones, having already set several records in previous years.
First, it was able to beat the YouTube record. Then, it hit 130.72 kph (81.2 mph) in 2022 on the original plastic wheels, earning a record for that feat alone. Getting worldwide recognition from Guinness was only the final step in this long process.
To set the world record, the E-Bobby-Car rode on CST Bobby-Car racing tires. The Baby Porsche was a gift from BIG Spielwarenfabrik, powered by an all-electric drivetrain designed in collaboration with Hacker. Paul himself served as driver, operating the tiny mean machine in a reclined position on considerations of safety and for improved aerodynamics.
Available in the video below is a test run before the actual record run, offering POV footage of what it must be like to drive this bobby-car on steroids. It's not for the faint of heart, that much is certain. But the faint of heart never set world records.
Elena has been writing for a living since 2006 and, as a journalist, she has put her double major in English and Spanish to good use. She covers automotive and mobility topics like cars and bicycles, and she always knows the shows worth watching on Netflix and friends. Full profile
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