Finnish tire manufacturer Nokian teamed up with compatriot tractor builder Valtra (formerly Valmet) in order to break the world speed record for such vehicles. They relied on the steady and experienced hands of rally ace Juha Kankkunen and a long straight preceded by a wide corner created through snow specially for the run.
In fact, the preceding corner wasn’t wide enough as first envisioned, and Kankkunen complained about not being able to carry enough speed through it. The first runs barely passed the 100 km/h or 62 mph mark.
They then extended the straight and widened the corner, that leading to a much improved trap speed of just over 130 km/h or ~81 mph.
Nokian documented the day of the run and made a short video about the proceedings. It’s pretty cool to see the a tractor going that fast… on snow – only in Finland, right?
The tractor itself is called Valtra T234 (described in the second video) and it’s the latest model they make. Its diesel engine has 250 PS and 1,000 Nm of torque, but it’s not the biggest one available; that’s the S series of tractors with up to 400 PS and 1,600 Nm.