World records are an interesting concept because they can often balance whackiness with steely determination. Joel Strasser, for instance, nabbed a Guinness World Record in 2023 for stuffing 187 candy canes in his beard; while closer to home in the automotive world, then-61-year-old Brian Cade had his name up in lights last year for hitting 123 mph... in his combustion-powered shed. However, we'd like to divert your attention to another quirky feat in this story: the 42-second engine swap. You read that right: Forty-two seconds for an engine swap, and that includes a 32-foot drive to prove it works. It was achieved by a quintet of Royal Marines — clearly also the world's best part-time engineers — on the now-defunct BBC show "Record Breakers." What's more impressive is that they reportedly only had two weeks of practice before the attempt. Sure, there is some element of yanking and ranting to it, because it's impossible to swap an engine that quickly with absolute grace. But you still need to have some sort of mechanical sympathy and understanding to be able to do it — a know-how of electronics, for example, and plumbing. Combustion engines aren't simple, after all, so let's get into the details of how this was done. What car was used for this challenge? BBC The car in question was a perfectly clean first-generation Ford Escort. The instructions by the "Record Breakers" presenters were this: Start the outgoing engine first to prove it works, switch it off, replace it, and drive 10 meters (32.8 feet) with the new engine in place. As you can imagine, the attempt looked less like a masterclass in mechanical engineering and more like a sort of man-versus-machine edition of a Royal Rumble. As soon as the Marine crew cut the engine, which officially signaled the start of the record, one of the Marines slid gracefully beneath the car to unbolt it, while the others began lifting the block up and out using a pole. Once the engine was removed, they quickly lowered the replacement in place and got the hood on, with this entire sequence taking less than 10 seconds. When they all get back into the car, you half-expect the gimmick to be cut short with a comically bad "sike" graphic — but no. The engine doesn't just turn over; it actually starts and bobbles the crew over the finish line. The swap itself only took about 30 seconds, and they probably could've cut another second or two since one of the Marines had a slightly awkward re-entry into the car, causing the driver to hesitate. To put into context how impressive that is, the host of the "Record Breakers" program says that, at the time, a fully-equipped and fully-manned garage would've taken a smidge over three hours to do the job. What's even more astonishing is that this probably isn't accurate, either. Most garages will actually take anywhere from eight hours to well over 20 for complex jobs – and that's not even accounting for diagnostics, testing, and eating doughnuts during customer time. What was the previous record before this attempt? BBC The Royal Marines managed to shave seven seconds off what we discovered to be the previous world record when a team of engineers at RAF Abingdon in Oxfordshire, England, did something similar with a classic Mini Cooper engine swap. In this instance, the team actually lifted the Mini's main frame free of the front axle (it's remarkable what low weight can do for a car), made the swap, and then hustled the body back up and over the new engine. In truth, as impressive as that attempt was, the Marines' attempt just seemed to be far more efficient. Naturally, though, the modern world has sceptics for everything, and this video was no different. People had question marks over how the engine was actually connected, with one of the commenters on YouTube saying: "Obviously one guy made the engine noise with his mouth and the other guys just flinstoned the car over the line." Ah, don't you just love the internet?
