Land speed racing is a form of

motorsport Motorsport or motor sport are sporting events, competitions and related activities that primarily involve the use of Car, automobiles, motorcycles, motorboats and Aircraft, powered aircraft. For each of these vehicle types, the more specific term ...

. Land speed racing is best known for the efforts to break the absolute

land speed record The land speed record (LSR) or absolute land speed record is the highest speed achieved by a person using a vehicle on land. By a 1964 agreement between the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) and Fédération Internationale de M ...

, but it is not limited to specialist vehicles. A record is defined as the speed over a course of fixed length, averaged over two runs (commonly called "passes"). Under current FIA rules, two runs are required in opposite directions within one hour, over a timed mile and a new record mark must exceed the previous one by at least one percent to be validated. Records are set in either the flying kilometre or flying mile. Motorcycle land speed racing requires 2 passes the same calendar day in opposite directions over a timed mile/km fo
AMA National Land Speed Records
whil
FIM Land Speed World Records
require two passes in opposite directions to be over a timed mile/km completed within 2 hours.

History

The sport's origins date to the 1930s with the Mormon Meteor at

Bonneville Speedway Bonneville Speedway (also known as the Bonneville Salt Flats Race Track) is an area of the Bonneville Salt Flats northeast of Wendover, Utah, that is marked out for motor sports. It is particularly noted as the venue for numerous land speed reco ...

in Utah and in California, when the Southern California Timing Association first held meets for a variety of

hot rod Hot rods are typically American cars that might be old, classic, or modern and that have been rebuilt or modified with large engines optimized for speed and acceleration. One definition is: "a car that's been stripped down, souped up and ma ...

ded vehicles. The SCTA began hosting Speed Week at Bonneville in August 1949 (then called the Bonneville Nationals), and have done so every year since, celebrating their seventy-fifth anniversary in 2023. Top speed of the year earns an SCTA tropy; for the inaugural year, it went to Alex Xydias and Dean Batchelor for the ''So-Cal'' streamliner, with a speed of . Since then, the trophy has gone to Mickey Thompson, Art Arfons, the Summers Brothers, Don Vesco, Al Teague, and ten-time winner George Poteet, among others. The 2023 trophy was awarded to Chris Raschke in ''Speed Demon'' (the team's eleventh win), with a pass of .< Any vehicle – car, truck, or motorcycle – able to meet the class requirements and safety regulations has been able to make an attempt to break the existing record. For automobiles running under FIA sanctioning, the record is set by averaging two runs (commonly called "passes"), one in either direction, within the space of two hours. All vehicles are separated by classes based on

displacement Displacement may refer to: Physical sciences Mathematics and physics *Displacement (geometry), is the difference between the final and initial position of a point trajectory (for instance, the center of mass of a moving object). The actual path ...

. Vintage engines, like the Ford Flathead, Buick Straight Eight, Stovebolt engine and others are raced in the vintage classes. These consist of: *XF: Ford Flathead *XO: Overhead valve engines and non Ford flatheads built up to 1959. *XXF: Ford flatheads with overhead valve head conversions. *XXO: Overhead valve engines with specialist cylinder heads. *V4: Vintage four cylinder engines made before 1935. Overhead valve/Overhead cam conversions permitted. *V4F: Vintage flathead four cylinder engines built before 1935, valvetrain must remain a valve in block.

Women's record

In 1906, Dorothy Levitt broke the women's world speed record for the flying kilometer, recording a speed of 91 mph (146.25 km/h) and receiving the

sobriquet A sobriquet ( ) is a descriptive nickname, sometimes assumed, but often given by another. A sobriquet is distinct from a pseudonym in that it is typically a familiar name used in place of a real name without the need for explanation; it may beco ...

the "Fastest Girl on Earth". She drove a six-cylinder Napier motorcar, a 100 hp (74.6 kW) development of the K5, in a speed trial in

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.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 ''Cars: Early and Vintage, 1886–1930''. (London: Grange-Universal, 1985). In 1929, Frenchwoman Hellé Nice broke the female speed record. She reached 122.84 mph (197.7 km/h) in a Bugatti 35B on a 10 km course on the Montlhery track outside

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

. The feat was so great that the newspapers at the time named her "Queen of Speed". A subsequent record was set by Lee Breedlove, the wife of Craig Breedlove, who piloted her husband's ''Spirit of America - Sonic 1'' to a record of in 1965. According to author Rachel Kushner, 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. For 43 years, the world record was held by Kitty O'Neil with a speed of 512.710 mph (825.127 km/h), in the jet-powered '' SMI Motivator'', set at the Alvord Desert in 1976. On August 20, 2019, 43 years later, American professional racer, television personality, and metal fabricator

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 ...

attempted to break Kitty's long-standing world record at the age of 39 and at the same location. Combs died after her car suffered a mechanical failure on her second run from the opposite direction (used to establish an average to account for wind); the mechanical failure (located on the front wheel assembly) was speculated to have been caused by hitting an object in the desert. Despite dying during the execution of the run, her record attempt was eventually validated, and her new time was posthumously ratified by

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on 25 June 2020, ten months after the fatal attempt. Her time was recorded as 522.783 mph (841.338 km/h), which is more than 10 mph faster than Kitty O'Neil's historic record.

Records by class

Motorcycle record

1960–present wheel driven cars

There is no "wheel-driven" category as such. The

Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile The Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA; ) is an international organisation with two primary functions surrounding use of the automobile. Its mobility division advocacy, advocates the interests of motoring organisations, the automot ...

validates records in a variety of classes, of which the "wheel-driven" classes are in Category A (Special cars) and Category B (Production cars). The accepted record is fastest average speed recorded over any one-mile or one-kilometer distance, averaged over two runs in opposite directions (to factor out wind) within one hour of each other. The most recent wheel-driven record holders have been from a variety of different classes within Category A. In 2008 Tom Burkland broke the piston-engined wheel-driven record for the flying mile, recording a speed of . He drove the Burkland family streamliner powered by two 450+ cubic inch-

supercharged

Donovan Donovan Phillips Leitch (born 10 May 1946), known mononymously as Donovan, is a Scottish musician, songwriter and record producer. He emerged from the British folk scene in early 1965 and subsequently scored multiple international hit singles ...

engines (bought second-hand), with crankshafts bolted together nose-to-nose, running on

methanol Methanol (also called methyl alcohol and wood spirit, amongst other names) is an organic chemical compound and the simplest aliphatic Alcohol (chemistry), alcohol, with the chemical formula (a methyl group linked to a hydroxyl group, often ab ...

. In September, 2010 George Poteet made an attempt to break the piston-engined wheel-driven record for the flying mile and flying kilometer. His car, ''Speed Demon'', built by Ron Main, is powered by a aluminum

block Block or blocked may refer to: Arts, entertainment and media Broadcasting * Block programming, the result of a programming strategy in broadcasting * W242BX, a radio station licensed to Greenville, South Carolina, United States known as ''96.3 ...

'Hellfire' V8, built by Kenny Duttweiler. Their effort was thwarted by a number of parts failures. The team stated their intention to return in 2011 to set a record over , and at the 2011 Bonneville Speed Week, Poteet achieved In 2012, the Target 550 team of Marlo Treit and Les Davenport planned to raise the record for this class to more than in ''Viking 31'', built by Jim Hume. Powered by two Dodge hemis with Whipple supercharger, it has a frontal area of and is more than long. The model was tested in the

Western Washington University Western Washington University (WWU or Western) is a public university in Bellingham, Washington, United States. The northernmost university in the contiguous United States, WWU was founded in 1893 as the state-funded New Whatcom Normal School, s ...

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, with assistance from Michael Seal. In 2018 the Flashpoint Streamliner exceeded the record but was disqualified after being destroyed on its second pass, as two full successful passes are required to set a record. The car reached 436 and 451 mph on each pass, but was destroyed on the second pass as a result of a tire failure.

Notes

External links

* - Australian challengers to the supersonic showdown
The UK Land Speed Racing Association

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.

Land speed Record site for dedicated enthusiasts

Landracing.com

SCTA siteBonneville Motorcycle Speed Trials
{{DEFAULTSORT:Land speed racing Record progressions