This page is for personal, non-commercial use. You may order presentation ready copies to distribute to your colleagues, customers, or clients, by visiting https://www.parsintl.com/publication/autoblog/

Changing a wheel sounds like one of the least exciting ways to etch your name into the Guinness Book of World Records. Unless the car is moving, of course. An Italian team got good enough at this odd skill that it broke the existing record by pulling it off in a little over a minute.

The time to beat was 1:30, according to Guinness, and Manuel Zoldan and Gianluca Folco smashed it by changing the passenger-side front wheel on an E46-generation BMW 3 Series in 1.17:64. This feat would be nearly impossible to achieve with the four wheels touching the ground, so one carefully and slowly drove the sedan on its driver-side wheels while the other hung over the passenger-side fender.

Several steps were taken to make the swap a little easier. The wheels being changed appear to be space-saver spares, so they're lighter than the standard wheels that BMW fitted to the E46, and the yellow one installed on the car when the stunt begins is fitted with a handle. That's not to say it was easy, though. The E46's wheels are held on with studs rather than with bolts, so they need to be centered before they're secured, and there are five per wheel. We imagine that using a car with three- or four-hole wheels could speed this up even more.

Browsing through the Guinness Book of World Records reveals several other wheel-related achievements that you might not know exist. Four mechanics from Germany managed to change the four wheels on a first-generation Ford Focus without using power tools in merely 59.62 seconds, for example. In 2018, Germans also set the record for changing the wheels on a forklift, which checks in at 1:09.

Please sign in to leave a comment.

Corvette C8 driver arrested for driving 161 mph in New Hampshire

2022 Subaru WRX GT Road Test | Variable expectations

New IIHS side-impact test flunks virtually every mainstream midsize sedan, wagon

Will the 2023 Toyota Crown be the ICE 'lift-up sedan' that succeeds?

Hyundai, Kia models at higher risk of theft, and of course it's on TikTok

News, Reviews, Photos, Videos delivered straight to your in-box.

Thanks for subscribing. Check your in-box to get started.

We get it. Ads can be annoying. But ads are also how we keep the garage doors open and the lights on here at Autoblog - and keep our stories free for you and for everyone. And free is good, right? If you'd be so kind as to allow our site, we promise to keep bringing you great content. Thanks for that. And thanks for reading Autoblog.

You still haven't turned off your adblocker or allowed our site. It only takes a few seconds.

You must be logged in to perform that action.

Please enter a display name