What is the shortest space a parked car can get out of? Or a parking car can get into? (continued)
Grant Hutchison
Dundee, UK
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Previous answers to this question have neglected the usefulness of entering a parking space while executing a handbrake turn, in which the driver uses the emergency brake to lock the car’s rear wheels. This allows the car to be drifted into a space only a few centimetres longer than itself.
The current record is a space just longer than a Fiat 500 driven by Alastair Moffatt in 2015.
Mark Inwood
Reigate, Surrey, UK
I have a lovely memory from the 1960s of parking my neon green Bond 875. As an earlier contributor noted, cars were lighter then. I arrived late for an appointment and, spotting an exactly Bond-sized gap, I reversed the back end into the space, jumped out and lifted the front end in to complete the manoeuver – only then noticing the applauding bus queue opposite! A quick bow, and I still made it just in time for my meeting.
David Clarke
Seaford, East Sussex, UK
No need to lift a car to get it into a small space. Get it bouncing on its suspension and it is easy to move sideways. You can fit a car into any space longer than its length. Many years ago, four of us easily moved a Ford Zephyr that had blocked us in a car park out of the way.
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