Flying Mile: the unusual world record beaten by Idris Elba

Posted On October 2, 2024October 2, 2024

Idris Elba is a man of many talents outside of acting. Some of those include rapping, DJing and podcasting, but almost a decade ago, he quietly added another string to his bow: world record-breaking.

Elba, of course, first came to mainstream prominence on TV with a two-year stint as a drug dealer in HBO’s The Wire. He later came back across the pond to star in BBC One’s long-running detective series Luther before transitioning to the big screen playing Nelson Mandela. From there, he hit the cinematic big-time in franchises like Alien, Pacific Rim, Fast and Furious and the MCU and DCEU. This reputation for playing charismatic, no-nonsense hard men, plus an effortless British suaveness, has led to fans petitioning for him to take up the James Bond mantle for years.

While Elba declined to give the role serious consideration due to racist backlash, some of his extreme extra-curricular activities might be viewed as continuing to stoke this fire. In 2016, he spent a year honing his kickboxing and MMA skills with a revered Muay Thai coach, eventually winning his first-ever professional match at a tournament in London against a younger, more seasoned opponent. His journey was chronicled in a Discovery Channel documentary, Idris Elba: Fighter.

Impressive as this is, it’s not the peculiar world record in question. A year prior, Elba teamed with the channel for Idris Elba: No Limits. Following in his father’s footsteps as a Ford Dagenham plant worker in his native east London, Elba spent the four-episode miniseries putting pedal to the metal in a variety of motorsports. In typical fashion for the high-flying multitasker, none of these challenges were undertaken lightly. Elba tried out rally driving at the Circuit of Ireland race, aerobatics in a competition in Coventry, got his drag racing licence for the Top Fuel competition and, in the show’s climax, attempted to break the ‘Flying Mile’ record.

Set in 1927 and never broken, the feat was first achieved by racing motorist and journalist Sir Malcolm Campbell. Campbell reached a speed of 174.8mph in his Napier-Campbell Blue Bird over a measured mile on Carmarthen Bay’s Pendine Sands in Wales, one of three land speed records he made there. Taking to the sport like a fish to water, the then-42-year-old Elba beat the 88-year speed record at an average speed of 180.361mph in his Bentley Continental GT Speed on the same turf.

“I’m absolutely elated to have broken the flying mile at Pendine Sands,” he told the BBC. “It’s an honour to have taken on the challenge and to successfully follow in the footsteps of the illustrious Sir Malcolm Campbell.”

In terms of his non-acting gigs, Elba has focussed more on his music career in recent years, racking up clubbing spots at venues and festivals around the globe. But who knows when his penchant for daredevilry might send him smashing through records of a different kind again.

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