![ThrustSSC](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0d/ThrustSSC.jpg)
The land speed record (or absolute land speed record) is the highest
speed
In everyday use and in kinematics, the speed (commonly referred to as ''v'') of an object is the magnitude of the change of its position over time or the magnitude of the change of its position per unit of time; it is thus a scalar quanti ...
achieved by a person using a
vehicle
A vehicle (from la, vehiculum) is a machine that transports people or cargo. Vehicles include wagons, bicycles, motor vehicles (motorcycles, cars, trucks, buses, mobility scooters for disabled people), railed vehicles (trains, trams), wa ...
on land. There is no single body for validation and regulation; in practice the Category C ("Special Vehicles") flying start regulations are used, officiated by regional or national organizations under the auspices of the
Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile
The Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA; en, International Automobile Federation) is an association established on 20 June 1904 to represent the interests of motoring organisations and motor car users. It is the governing body for ...
(FIA). The land speed record (LSR) is standardized as the speed over a course of fixed length,
averaged
In mathematics and statistics, the arithmetic mean ( ) or arithmetic average, or just the ''mean'' or the ''average'' (when the context is clear), is the sum of a collection of numbers divided by the count of numbers in the collection. The colle ...
over two runs (commonly called "passes"). Two runs are required in opposite directions within one hour, and a new record mark must exceed the previous one by at least one percent to be validated.
History
The first regulator was the
''Automobile Club de France'', which proclaimed itself arbiter of the record in about 1902.
[
]
![Rc05640](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e0/Rc05640.jpg)
Until 1903, trains held the land speed record for fastest vehicles in which people could travel.
[
Different clubs had different standards and did not always recognize the same world records until 1924, when the ''Association Internationale des Automobile Clubs Reconnus'' (AIACR) introduced new regulations: two passes in opposite directions (to negate the effects of wind) averaged with a maximum of 30 minutes (later more) between runs, average gradient of the racing surface not more than 1 percent, timing gear accurate within 0.01sec, and cars must be wheel-driven.][Northey, p.1163.] National or regional auto clubs (such as AAA
AAA, Triple A, or Triple-A is a three-letter initialism or abbreviation which may refer to:
Airports
* Anaa Airport in French Polynesia (IATA airport code AAA)
* Logan County Airport (Illinois) (FAA airport code AAA)
Arts, entertainment, and me ...
and SCTA
Southern California Timing Association (SCTA) is a competition sanctioning body that maintains rules and record for Land Speed Racing events held at El Mirage Lake, El Mirage Dry Lake, California and at the Bonneville Salt Flats, Utah. It is a non ...
) had to be AIACR members to ensure records would be recognized.[Northey, p.1164.] The AIACR became the FIA in 1947. Controversy arose in 1963: '' Spirit of America'' was not recognized due to its being a three-wheeler (leading the Fédération Internationale de Motocyclisme
The Fédération Internationale de Motocyclisme (FIM; en, International Motorcycling Federation) is the global governing/sanctioning body of motorcycle racing. It represents 116 national motorcycle federations that are divided into six regiona ...
to certify it as a three-wheel motorcycle record when the FIA refused) and not wheel-driven so the FIA introduced a special jet and rocket propelled class.[Northey, p.1166.] No holder of the absolute record since has been wheel-driven.
In the U.S. and Australia, record runs are often done on salt flats Salt flats, Salt flat, Salt Flats, or Salt Flat may refer to: Geology
*Salt pan (geology), a flat expanse of ground covered with salt and other minerals
* Dry lake, an ephemeral lakebed that consists of fine-grained sediments infused with alkali sal ...
, so the cars are often called salt cars.
Women's land speed record
The FIA does not recognize separate men's and women's land speed records, however, unofficial women's records have long been claimed, seemingly starting with Dorothy Levitt
Dorothy Elizabeth Levitt (born Elizabeth Levi; 5 January 1882 – 17 May 1922) was a British racing driver and journalist. She was the first British woman racing driver, holder of the world's first water speed record, the women's world lan ...
's 1906 record in Blackpool
Blackpool is a seaside resort in Lancashire, England. Located on the North West England, northwest coast of England, it is the main settlement within the Borough of Blackpool, borough also called Blackpool. The town is by the Irish Sea, betw ...
, England, and, unlike the FIA and other car-racing organisations, the Guinness Book of World Records
''Guinness World Records'', known from its inception in 1955 until 1999 as ''The Guinness Book of Records'' and in previous United States editions as ''The Guinness Book of World Records'', is a reference book published annually, listing world ...
does recognize gender-based land speed records.
In 1906, Dorothy Levitt
Dorothy Elizabeth Levitt (born Elizabeth Levi; 5 January 1882 – 17 May 1922) was a British racing driver and journalist. She was the first British woman racing driver, holder of the world's first water speed record, the women's world lan ...
broke the women's world speed record for the flying kilometer, recording a speed of and receiving the sobriquet
A sobriquet ( ), or soubriquet, is a nickname, sometimes assumed, but often given by another, that is descriptive. A sobriquet is distinct from a pseudonym, as it is typically a familiar name used in place of a real name, without the need of expla ...
the "Fastest Girl on Earth". She drove a six-cylinder Napier motorcar, a development of the K5, in a speed trial in Blackpool
Blackpool is a seaside resort in Lancashire, England. Located on the North West England, northwest coast of England, it is the main settlement within the Borough of Blackpool, borough also called Blackpool. The town is by the Irish Sea, betw ...
.[Hull, Peter G. "Napier: The Stradivarius of the Road", in Northey, Tom, ed. The World of Automobiles (London: Orbis, 1974), Volume 13, p.1483.]G.N. Georgano
George Nicolas "Nick" Georgano (29 February 1932 – 22 October 2017[Nick Georgano](_blank)
Alvis Archive Bl ...
''Cars: Early and Vintage, 1886–1930''. (London: Grange-Universal, 1985).
in 1963, Paula Murphy
Paula or PAULA may refer to:
Arts and entertainment Fictional characters
* Paula, in video game ''EarthBound''
* Paula, in ''The Larry Sanders Show''
* Paula Campbell (''EastEnders''), in 2003
Film and television
* ''Paula'' (1915 film), a si ...
drove a Studebaker Avanti
The Studebaker Avanti is a personal luxury coupe manufactured and marketed by Studebaker Corporation between June 1962 and December 1963. A halo car for the maker, it was marketed as "America's only four-passenger high-performance personal car ...
to at Bonneville Salt Flats
The Bonneville Salt Flats are a densely packed salt pan in Tooele County in northwestern Utah. A remnant of the Pleistocene Lake Bonneville, it is the largest of many salt flats west of the Great Salt Lake. It is public land managed by the Bur ...
as part of Andy Granatelli
Anthony "Andy" Granatelli (March 18, 1923 – December 29, 2013) was an American businessman, most prominent as the CEO of STP as well as a major figure in automobile racing events.
Granatelli was born in Dallas, Texas. Along with his broth ...
's attempt on the overall record. In 1964, she was asked by the tire company
This is a list of all the tire
A tire (American English) or tyre (British English) is a ring-shaped component that surrounds a Rim (wheel), wheel's rim to transfer a vehicle's load from the axle through the wheel to the ground and to p ...
Goodyear to try to improve her own record, which she raised to in Walt Arfons
Walter Charles Arfons (December 10, 1916 – June 4, 2013) was the half brother of Art Arfons, his former partner in drag racing, and his competitor in jet-powered land speed record racing. Along with Art, he was a pioneer in the use of aircra ...
's jet dragster
A jet car is a car jet propulsion, propelled by a jet engine. A jet dragster is a jet powered car used for drag racing. They are most commonly seen at race shows.
Land speed record
Jet powered cars are commonly used for land speed record atte ...
''Avenger''. The rival tire company Firestone and Art Arfons
Arthur Eugene Arfons (February 3, 1926 – December 3, 2007) was the world land speed record holder three times from 1964 to 1965 with his ''Green Monster'' series of jet-powered cars, after a series of ''Green Monster'' piston-engine and je ...
hit back against Goodyear and Walt Arfons when Betty Skelton
Betty Skelton Frankman Erde (June 28, 1926 – August 31, 2011) was a land speed record holder and aerobatics pilot who set 17 aviation and automobile records. She was known as "The First Lady of Firsts", and helped create opportunities for women ...
drove Art's ''Cyclops'' to achieve a two-way average of in September 1965.
Five weeks later, Goodyear hit back against Firestone with Lee Breedlove. While recordkeeping has not been as extensive, a report in 1974 confirmed that a record was held by Lee Breedlove, the wife of then overall record holder Craig Breedlove
Craig Breedlove (born March 23, 1937) is an American professional race car driver and a five-time world land speed record holder. He was the first person in history to reach , and , using several turbojet-powered vehicles, all named '' Spirit o ...
, who piloted her husband's ''Spirit of America – Sonic 1'' to a record in 1965. According to author Rachel Kushner
Rachel Kushner (born 1968) is an American writer, known for her novels ''Telex from Cuba'' (2008), ''The Flamethrowers'' (2013), and '' The Mars Room'' (2018).
Early life
Kushner was born in Eugene, Oregon, the daughter of two Communist scientists ...
, Craig Breedlove had talked Lee into taking the car out for a record attempt in order to monopolize the salt flats for the day and block one of his competitors from making a record attempt.
In 1976, the women's absolute record was set by Kitty O'Neil
Kitty Linn O'Neil (March 24, 1946 – November 2, 2018) was an American stuntwoman and racer, known as "the fastest woman in the world". An illness in early childhood left her deaf, and more illnesses in early adulthood cut short a career in dr ...
, in the jet-powered, three-wheeled ''SMI Motivator SMI may refer to:
Business
* Service Measurement Index, for IT services
* Swiss Market Index, of the stock market
Companies
* SensoMotoric Instruments, provider of eye tracking hard- and software
*Shepardson Microsystems, Atari 8-bit and Ap ...
'', at the Alvord Desert
The Alvord Desert is a desert located in Harney County, in southeastern Oregon in the Western United States. It is roughly southeast of Steens Mountain. The Alvord Desert is a dry lake bed and averages of rain a year. Two mountain ranges se ...
. Held back by her contract with a sponsor and using only 60 percent of her car's power, O'Neil reached .
On October 9, 2013, driver Jessi Combs
Jessica Combs (July 27, 1980 – August 27, 2019) was an American professional racer, television personality, and metal fabricator. She set a women's land speed class record (four wheels) in 2013 and broke her own record in 2016. She was kno ...
, in a vehicle of the North American Eagle Project
The North American Eagle Project was a jet powered car that was intended to challenge the (Mach 1.02) land speed record set by the ThrustSSC in 1997. The venture was a collaboration between Canadian and US engineers, pilots, and mechanics. In 20 ...
running at the Alvord Desert, raised the women's four-wheel land speed class record with an official run of , surpassing Breedlove's 48-year-old record. Combs continued with the North American Eagle Project, whose ongoing target is the overall land speed record; as part of that effort, Combs was killed, on August 27, 2019, during an attempt to raise the four-wheel record. In late June 2020, the Guinness Book of Records
''Guinness World Records'', known from its inception in 1955 until 1999 as ''The Guinness Book of Records'' and in previous United States editions as ''The Guinness Book of World Records'', is a reference book published annually, listing world ...
reclassified the August 27, 2019 speed runs as meeting its requirements, and Combs was credited with the record at , noting she was the first to break the record in 40 years.
Records
1898–1964 (wheel-driven)
1963–present (jet and rocket propulsion)
Craig Breedlove
Craig Breedlove (born March 23, 1937) is an American professional race car driver and a five-time world land speed record holder. He was the first person in history to reach , and , using several turbojet-powered vehicles, all named '' Spirit o ...
's mark of ,[Twite, Mike. "Craig Breedlove: Toward the Sound Barrier", in ''World of Automobiles'' (Volume 2, p.231).] set in '' Spirit of America'' in September 1963, was initially considered unofficial. The vehicle breached the FIA regulations on two grounds: it had only three wheels, and it was not wheel-driven, since its jet engine did not supply power to its axles. Some time later, the Fédération Internationale de Motocyclisme
The Fédération Internationale de Motocyclisme (FIM; en, International Motorcycling Federation) is the global governing/sanctioning body of motorcycle racing. It represents 116 national motorcycle federations that are divided into six regiona ...
created a non-wheel-driven category, and ratified ''Spirit of America''s time for this mark. On July 17, 1964, Donald Campbell
Donald is a masculine given name derived from the Gaelic name ''Dòmhnall''.. This comes from the Proto-Celtic *''Dumno-ualos'' ("world-ruler" or "world-wielder"). The final -''d'' in ''Donald'' is partly derived from a misinterpretation of the ...
's Bluebird CN7
The Bluebird-Proteus CN7 is a gas turbine-powered vehicle that was driven by Donald Campbell and achieved the world land speed record on Lake Eyre in Australia on 17 July 1964. The vehicle set the FIA world record for the flying mile at .
Des ...
posted a speed of on Lake Eyre
Lake Eyre ( ), officially known as Kati Thanda–Lake Eyre, is an endorheic lake in east-central Far North South Australia, some north of Adelaide. The shallow lake is the depocentre of the vast endorheic Lake Eyre basin, and contains the ...
, Australia. This became the official FIA LSR, although Campbell was disappointed not to have beaten Breedlove's time. In October, several four-wheel jet-car
A jet car is a car propelled by a jet engine. A jet dragster is a jet powered car used for drag racing. They are most commonly seen at race shows.
Land speed record
Jet powered cars are commonly used for land speed record attempts, after ...
s surpassed the 1963 mark, but were eligible for neither FIA nor FIM ratification. The confusion of having three different LSRs lasted until December 11, 1964, when the FIA and FIM met in Paris and agreed to recognize as an absolute LSR the higher speed recorded by either body, by any vehicles running on wheels, whether wheel-driven or not.
See also
* List of vehicle speed records
The following is a list of speed records for various types of vehicles. This list only presents the single greatest speed achieved in each broad record category; for more information on records under variations of test conditions, see the specific ...
* British land speed record
The British land speed record is the fastest land speed achieved by a vehicle in the United Kingdom, as opposed to one on water or in the air. It is standardised as the speed over a course of fixed length, averaged over two runs in opposite direc ...
* Production car speed record
This is a list of the world's record-breaking top speeds achieved by street-legal production cars (as opposed to concept cars or modified cars). For the purposes of this list eligible cars are defined in the list's rules. This list uses a diff ...
* Land speed record for rail vehicles
The world record for a conventional wheeled passenger train is held by France's TGV (''Train à Grande Vitesse''), set in 2007 when it reached on a section of track.
Japan's experimental maglev train L0 Series achieved on a 42.8 km mag ...
* Motorcycle land speed record
The motorcycle land-speed record is the fastest speed achieved by a motorcycle on land. It is standardized as the speed over a course of fixed length, averaged over two runs in opposite directions. AMA National Land Speed Records requires 2 passes ...
* Aero-engined car {{disambig
The term aero-engined refers to a vehicle other than an aircraft that is powered by an aircraft engine:
* Aero-engined boat (such as ''Miss England I'' and ''Miss Britain III'')
* Aero-engined car
* Aero-engined train (including turbojet ...
* Pioneer 2M
The Pioneer 2M was a Soviet Group VII land speed record car built in 1961 under the guidance of sportsman and engineer Ilya Aleksandrovich Tikhomirov. Based on the 1960 record car ''Pioneer 1'', the body was made of aluminum and the wheels of a m ...
– Soviet Union attempt at the land speed record in early 1960s
* Budweiser Rocket
The Budweiser Rocket is an American 3-wheeled land vehicle, generally resembling the 1970-era ''Blue Flame'' land speed record holding vehicle in appearance, powered by a hybrid liquid and solid-fuel rocket engine with an extra booster from a Side ...
– Claimed but not verified to have reached and to have broken the sound barrier
The sound barrier or sonic barrier is the large increase in aerodynamic drag and other undesirable effects experienced by an aircraft or other object when it approaches the speed of sound. When aircraft first approached the speed of sound, th ...
in 1979
* North American Eagle Project
The North American Eagle Project was a jet powered car that was intended to challenge the (Mach 1.02) land speed record set by the ThrustSSC in 1997. The venture was a collaboration between Canadian and US engineers, pilots, and mechanics. In 20 ...
– An abandoned project that had been aiming for .
* Bloodhound LSR
''Bloodhound LSR'', formerly ''Bloodhound SSC'', is a British land vehicle designed to travel at supersonic speeds with the intention of setting a new world land speed record. The arrow-shaped car, under development since 2008, is powered by a je ...
– Project aiming for .
* Rosco McGlashan
Rosco McGlashan (born 1950) OAM is an Australian drag racing record-holder, who currently holds the Australian land speed record at 500 mph (802.6 km/h). This record was set on the 27 March 1994 on the dry salt flats of Lake Gairdner, S ...
– Australia's fastest man on the land. His Aussie Invader team is building a fully rocket-powered LSR car with an attempt at the record currently on hold pending funding.
References
External links
*
* – Australian challengers to the supersonic showdown
Speed Record Club
– The Speed Record Club seeks to promote an informed and educated enthusiast identity, reporting accurately and impartially to the best of its ability on record-breaking engineering, events, attempts and history.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Land Speed Record
Record progressions