World's Largest Cowboy Hat Unveiled in Austin, 47 Feet Wide, With a Bar Inside

Austin now has a hat you can see from the highway and drink in. Circuit of the Americas and western wear brand Tecovas unveiled the world's largest cowboy hat on Monday, October 19, and a Guinness World Records team certified it at the track.

The hat is a to-scale copy of Tecovas' Cattleman cowboy hat, built at a scale no head could wear: 43 feet wide, 47 feet long and 17 feet tall, for the hat structure alone, not counting its support piers. It is made of fiberglass and foam wrapped around a steel frame. The fiberglass is textured to match the Cattleman's felt finish, the paint is matched to the hat's natural shade, and the design carries the Circuit of the Americas track outline styled like an iron brand, plus a hat band and a steel horseshoe charm.

The timing is the Formula 1 United States Grand Prix, which takes over the track the following week. COTA and Tecovas, two Austin brands, have worked together for four years. The circuit also hosts MotoGP, NASCAR and the FIA World Endurance Championship, so the hat will greet racing fans of every kind.

Motorsport reporting, carried by All Motor News, adds the detail fans will care about most: the giant hat has a Western themed bar inside, in the track's Lone Star Land fan area. COTA president Bobby Epstein said he wanted a landmark that pulls visitors to the circuit all year, not only on race weekends, according to that reporting.

There is a hometown rivalry inside the joke. San Antonio holds a famous record for the world's largest cowboy boot sculpture, at 10.74 metres, or about 35 feet. Austin's answer is a hat that stands 17 feet tall on its own and stretches 47 feet from brim to brim, in the city that likes to keep Texas weird and well branded.

The hat does real work for the track. Race weekends are short, and a circuit earns its keep the rest of the year with concerts, events and visitors who come for a photo. A certified world record that doubles as a bar is a photo that markets itself.

Whether it outlasts the Grand Prix circus is another question. Tents and fan zones come down on Monday. A 47 foot fiberglass hat, built to be certified, is staying. Austin drivers will be looking at it for a long time.