Land speed racing

Land speed racing is a form of motorsport.

Land speed racing is best known for the efforts to break the absolute land speed record, but it is not limited to specialist vehicles.

History

The sport's origins date to the 1930s in California, when the Southern California Timing Association first held meets for a variety of hot rodded vehicles.

Ever since, any vehicle – car, truck, or motorcycle – able to meet the safety regulations has been able to make an attempt to break the existing record. 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. 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

Dorothy Levitt, in a 26hp Napier, at Brooklands, England, in 1908

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 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 Blackpool.[1][2][3]

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 308.506 mph (496.492 km/h) in 1965.[4] 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.[5]

The current women's absolute record is held by Kitty O'Neil, in the jet-powered SMI Motivator, set at the Alvord Desert in 1976.[6] O'Neil reached 512.710 mph (825.127 km/h).[7][8]


Records by class

1960–present wheel driven cars

There is no "wheel-driven" category as such.[9] The Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile 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.[10]

Date Location Driver Vehicle Power Speed over
1 km		 Speed over
1 mile		 Notes
mphkm/hmphkm/h
September 9, 1960Bonneville Salt Flats, USAUnited States Mickey ThompsonChallenger I 4 x GMC 6-71 Supercharged Pontiac 389 V8s406.60654.36Piston-engined record with modified regular production automotive engines
July 17, 1964Lake Eyre, AustraliaUnited Kingdom Donald CampbellBluebird CN7Turboshaft: 1 x 4,000 hp (3,000 kW) Bristol Proteus403.10[11]648.73Last wheel-driven attempt at the absolute record
November 12, 1965Bonneville Salt Flats, USAUnited States Bob Summers Goldenrod 4 x fuel injected Chrysler 426 hemi V8s 409.277658.526 Naturally aspirated piston-engine record[10] Group II, Class 11:[12] 2 or 4 stroke engine without supercharger, cylinder capacity > 8000 cm3[13]
August 21, 1991Bonneville Salt Flats, USAUnited States Elwin "Al" Teague Spirit of '76 (Torque Speed-o-Motive streamliner) 14-71-supercharged Chrysler hemi V8 425.050684.052409.978659.796 Piston-engined record[10] Group I, Class 11:[12] 2 or 4 stroke engine with supercharger, cylinder capacity > 8000 cm3 until 2008[13]
October 18, 2001Bonneville Salt Flats, USAUnited States Don Vesco Vesco Turbinator Lycoming T55-L-11A SA 458.196737.395458.444737.794 [10] Group IX, Class 3:[12] gas turbine engine, unloaded weight > 1000 kg[13]
September 26, 2008Bonneville Salt Flats, USAUnited States Tom Burkland Burkland 411 Streamliner 2 x 8-71-supercharged Donovan Hemi V8 Engines 415.896669.319 Piston-engined record[10] Group I, Class 11:[12] 2 or 4 stroke engine with supercharger, cylinder capacity > 8000 cm3[13]
August 25, 2009Bonneville Salt Flats, USAUnited States Roger SchroerVenturi Buckeye BulletElectric motor by Venturi Automobiles303.025487.672302.877487.4331st electric vehicle to go over 300 mph[14]
August 24, 2010Bonneville Salt Flats, USAUnited States Roger SchroerVenturi Buckeye BulletElectric motor by Venturi Automobiles307.905495.526307.666495.140[14]
September 21, 2010Bonneville Salt Flats, USAUnited States Charles E. Nearburg Spirit of Rett streamliner Reher-Morrison Nitrous oxide-injected carbureted DRCE 2 V8 Engine 414.477667.037414.316666.776 Non-supercharged piston-engine record[10] Group II, Class 11:[12]
September 17, 2012Bonneville Salt Flats, USAUnited States George Poteet Speed Demon streamliner Twin-turbocharged Dart small-block V8s [15] 439.562 707.408 439.024706.540 Group I, Class 10[16]
August 11, 2018Bonneville Salt Flats, USAUnited States Danny ThompsonChallenger II2 x nitromethane-fuelled fuel injected BAE hemi V8s448.757722.204Normally-aspirated piston-engined record with automotive engines

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ Hull, Peter G. "Napier: The Stradivarius of the Road", in Northey, Tom, ed. The World of Automobiles (London: Orbis, 1974), Volume 13, p.1483.
  2. ↑ G.N. Georgano Cars: Early and Vintage, 1886–1930. (London: Grange-Universal, 1985).
  3. ↑ "Women in Motorsport - Timeline". Btinternet.com. Archived from the original on 2012-07-24. Retrieved 2010-10-17.
  4. ↑ Twite, Mike. (1974), "Breedlove: Towards the sound barrier", World of Automobiles, Orbis Publishing, 2: 231
  5. ↑ "Knowingly Navigating the Unknown Archived October 31, 2015, at the Wayback Machine.", Maria Russo, The New York Times, May 7, 2013
  6. ↑ Ellen Jares, Sue. "The Renaissance Woman of Danger—That's Tiny Kitty O'Neil". People. Retrieved 7 January 2014.
  7. ↑ Phinizy, Coles. "A Rocket Ride To Glory And Gloom". SI Vault. Retrieved 7 January 2014.
  8. ↑ "Deaf stuntwoman Kitty O'Neil sets women's land-speed record". History. Retrieved 7 January 2014.
  9. ↑ Fadini, Ugo (20 August 2002). "Who holds the "wheel-driven" LSR?". Retrieved 2008-11-09.
  10. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Fadini, Ugo (17 August 2002). "Don Vesco becomes undisputed holder of the "wheel-driven" LSR". Retrieved 2008-11-09.
  11. ↑ Northey, Tom. "Land Speed Record: The Fastest Men on Earth". In Ian Ward, executive editor. World of Automobiles, Vol. 10 (London: Orbis, 1974), p.1166
  12. 1 2 3 4 5 "List of Records Category A" (PDF) (in French). FIA. 2011-01-04. Retrieved 2011-05-09.
  13. 1 2 3 4 "Appendix B: Category A". Records. FIA. Archived from the original on 2008-11-16. Retrieved 2008-11-09.
  14. 1 2 (in French)LISTE OFFICIELLE DES RECORDS DE VITESSE HOMOLOGUES PAR LA FIA EN CATEGORIE A - FIA
  15. ↑ "Poteet & Main Speed Demon, 439.024 MPH". landspeedevents.com. 12 February 2012. Retrieved 28 August 2018.
  16. ↑ "OFFICIAL LIST OF WORLD SPEED RECORDS HOMOLOGATED BY THE FIA IN CATEGORY A" (PDF). FIA World Land Speed Records. Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). Retrieved 2015-09-03.
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