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The amazing adventures of a sofa!

There have been some strange world records set using furniture, and in particularly sofas. These have included sofas that have been driven to create the fastest sofa, really long sofas, extremely expensive sofas and attempts to fit as many people as possible on a sofa.

May 13th 2007 saw a new world record set for the fastest sofa. The two seater sofa with an engine attached to the back also had a desk on the front of it with a book, pot plants and a cup sitting on it. The sofa broke the fastest furniture land speed record as it was raced down a 60m wide straight at Bruntingthorpe Aerodrome in Lutterworth, Leicestershire by dare devil driver Marek Turowski. When asked about his experience, he said that he felt every bump and thought he was going to take off.

The right to drive the motorised sofa was sold on Ebay and Marek won the auction, paying £1376 which was donated to the Foundation for the Study of Infant Deaths.

At 92mph, Marek smashed the previous world record of 87mph which had been held since 1998 and will be featured in the Guinness book of world records.

Sofas can be expensive items of furniture and for many of us it often means arranging credit with stores or using the credit card to afford our dream sofa.The amount is not usually anywhere near the cost of the world's most expensive sofa though which is priced at a cool $300,000. For that, you would expect ultimate comfort, but that's not exactly what you get. It is more a piece of modern art than a cosy piece of furniture. It is very angular with a shiny mirrored effect surface with not a single cushion in sight. This piece of sofa artwork was designed by Ron Arad and will be displayed at the Museum of Modern art in New York later this year. A stunning piece of artwork, but not something that most of us could afford or would want to relax on after a hard day at the office.

The world record for the longest sofa was broken on June 7th 2008 in Norway and measures 61.52m in length. It was made up of 41 modules and 210 foam cushions.

Sofas are usually very comfortable but no one would really want to spend 120 hours sitting on one. That's exactly what pub chef Karen Sullivan did in 2004 when she broke the world record for the longest time sitting on a sofa. She was allowed ten minutes every four hours to use the toilet, have a wash and a stretch. She braved the outdoors and sat on the sofa outside the pub where she works and sat through heavy downpours, thunder and lightning while raising over £1000 for charity in the process.

The most amount of people recorded on a regular size sofa is 60. This included people sitting on the arms, the back and the seating area with others sitting on top of them. It’s amazing what people will do with a sofa!