Guinness Book of World Records told more than 1,574 Volvo owners and their guests their record attempt was invalid because at least two cars were too far apart.

How upsetting it must be for those thousands of Volvo enthusiasts who all gathered on a frosty weekend morning to attempt the world’s largest parade of Volvos, then to find out that their record attempt was done in vain. According to the Guinness Book of World Records in an update e-mail sent to the Volvo parade organizer earlier today (May 19, 2019) if they happened to hand out a congratulatory award that day, they’re taking it back because of a technicality.

Here’s a screenshot of the e-mail provided by VOLVO600 Guinness World Record Attempt on Facebook.

I’ve typed out verbatim the most important part below.

As per the record guidelines, “There must be no significant gaps in the flow of vehicles. Vehicles in the parade may not be more than two vehicle-lengths apart during the parade.”

“When reviewing the video evidence, in particular file ‘2100157~GWR-_Starting_Gate_1440x1080.mp4’, it became clear that there were significant gaps within the parade.

To recap, back in March, UK Volvo Enthusiasts gathered at Bruntingthorpe Proving Ground in Leicestershire to break the previous largest Volvo Parade back in 2010 by a Polish Volvo enthusiast site and their 570 Volvos. On the day of the parade, record breaker organizers got the shock of their life with the number of cars that showed up. 1574 Volvos showed up.

According to Volvo, who even wrote a press release commemorating their attempt, money was raised from the record attempt to fight breast cancer.

While it’s disheartening, rules are rules. Even looking at their attempt on Youtube, the attempt looked slightly disorganized with cars spaced at odd lengths. For all intents and purposes, it was more of a “hundreds of Volvos on a track” rather than an actual parade.

I’m sure that, if Guinness did officially award them the record, someone from the old record would bring up this technicality anyways with this video evidence.

And, might I remind you that Guinness is the same record officiating outfit that certified the most bottle caps removed with a helicopter in three minutes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5dXKAV7m71A

These UK Volvo enthusiasts will organize another track day and stick to the rules this time around. I’m sure of it.

Do you think Guinness were too hard with their ruling? Let me know your .02 in the comments.