My personal best as a parallel parker was achieved
in a 1988 Mazda 323 with manual transmission
at noon on August 10, 2005,
across the street from the Bromfield-Pearson Mathematics Building at Tufts
University, with a "PIC" (parked-in clearance) of
2 inches at the front bumper
and
3 inches at the rear bumper.
(This record was achieved through repeated use of the "el golpe
que avisa" maneuver, or what is sometimes called "Braille parking".
Apologies to 6236 MK and GOOGOL.)
Also noteworthy (also technically disqualified)
was the parking job I half-achieved in the same car
at 5 p.m. on December 11, 2005
in front of the Loeb Drama Center at Harvard University,
with a negative PIC of several inches.
(Both cars had bumpers significantly higher than mine;
my front end
was wedged just under the rearmost part
of the rear bumper of the car ahead of me,
while my back end
was well under the front bumper of the car behind me.)
I might have gotten my vehicle fully parked
if, five minutes into the maneuver,
my wife had not bolted from the car,
exclaiming that she could not take any more of
the sounds of protest coming from the
other two car's bumpers
(which I at the time wishfully insisted
were merely the sound of snow
crunching under my tires).