The Abarth 124 Spider is officially a world record holder. The Japanese-built, Italian roadster recently completed the snappily titled 'fastest figure of eight, five times between two cars' in just 45.66 seconds.

Stunt driver Alastair Moffatt was behind the wheel of the car for the record, which was set at the 2018 Chateau Impney Hill Climb in July this year. If you're wondering why it's taken us this long to bother with this story, it wasn't until now that the record was officially recognised by the world-famous Guinness world record organisation.

Moffatt is a Master Instructor at Stunt Drive UK and holds multiple Guinness World Records for precision driving including the 'Tightest Reverse Parallel Park' and 'Tightest Single Parallel Park'.

His latest record run had Moffatt slide one completely standard Abarth 124 Spider between two others five times in succession. The traction control was turned off for the run, obviously, and the tyre pressures were increased to compensate for the abrasiveness of the surface.

"It’s wonderful to have set this record! Finding the right vehicle is increasingly important for these record attempts, so the light weight, agility and rear wheel drive of the Abarth 124 spider made it the perfect choice," said Moffatt.

Abarth 124 figure-eight world record

Gerry Southerington for Abarth UK added: "We’re delighted that Alastair chose the Abarth 124 spider for this record attempt. Abarth have a long history of setting records in the past and it’s great to have added a new one."

"We congratulate Alastair on his remarkable achievement," Southerington continued. "We don’t recommend that people attempt such amazing stunts in public, but it’s good to know that the Abarth 124 spider is incredibly manoeuvrable in the hands of a trained professional."

The 170bhp Abarth 124 Spider is capable of reaching 62mph in 6.8 seconds and a maximum speed of 144mph. It returns pretty decent economy numbers too. The 1.4 MultiAir Turbo engine has a combined cycle of 44.1mpg for the manual and 42.8mpg for the automatic.

Until December, you can even get one for £199 per month on a two- year PCH offer.

Gallery: Abarth 124 figure-eight world record