The land speed record battle is about to become very interesting.
1898: Jeantaud Duc – 39mph-62 kmph
Rewind back to 1898 and it was in fact an electric car, the French-built Jeantaud Duc, which held the record for being the world’s fastest car. Piloted by Chaselloup-Laubat, the first record holder crept its way up to 39.24mph and into the history books. Jeantaud carried on making cars until 1908.
1899 - La Jamais Contente – 62mph 100 Kmph
The Duc didn’t hang on to his record for long; this French car, which means “Never Satisfied” in English, was also electric powered, and the first car to crack 100 km/h. It was driven by Belgian Camille Jenatzy.
1904: DMG Mercedes Simplex – 97mph 156 kmph
Belgian Pierre de Caters took this Mercedes up to 97mph on a run at Ostende in Belgium in May 1904. The car wrung 90hp from an immense 11.9-litre four cylinder internal-combustion engine.
1913: Fiat S76 – 132mph 212 kmph
This car – universally known as ‘The Beast of Turin’ – shouldn’t officially be here. It was built specially by Fiat founder Giovanni Agnelli to break the land speed record. It featured a 28-litre 4-cylinder engine, capable of producing 300bhp.
1914: Blitzen Benz – 124mph 200 kmph
Great Britain got its first land speed record holder in June 2014 in the shape of Lydston Hornsted, at the wheel of this monstrous 21-.5-litre Benz, which produced around 200bhp. He drove at the Brooklands motor circuit, just outside London. The outbreak of World War 1 shortly afterwards put an end to such adventures for the ensuing few years.
1922: Sunbeam 350hp – 136mph 219 kmph
After the war would-be record breakers appreciated that the key to more speed was to take advantage of aircraft technology, where engines of immense power (for the time) were starting to appear. This led to the Sunbeam 350HP of 1920, which featured a 18.3-litre V12 ‘plane engine.
1925: Sunbeam Bluebird – 151mph 243 kmph
Malcolm Campbell bought the 350hp and renamed it ‘Blue Bird.’ Land speed record cars began to demand longer, straighter roads in order to stretch their legs towards the next major landmark. Pendine beach in Wales became a popular choice for the many British-based would-be record attempts, thanks to its long, flat landscape.
1927: Sunbeam 1000hp – 204mph 328 kmph
200mph was the next number to conquer for the world’s most daring drivers, but the beaches of Great Britain were too short even for an 890bhp car to reach it.
1935: Campbell-Railton Blue Bird – 301mph 484 kmph
Despite this, improvements to car performance came fast and in 1935 the 300mph limit was passed, with Sir Malcolm Campbell edging his way up to 301.13mph in his Railton Rolls-Royce Bluebird at Daytona Beach. This car used a 36.7 litre supercharged Rolls-Royce R V12 engine, capable of belting out 2269bhp.
1964: Bluebird-Proteus CN7 – 403mph 649 kmph
July 1964 finally saw 400mph officially demolished with Sir Malcolm Campbell’s son, Donald, reaching 403.14mph in his gas turbine-engined Bluebird-Proteus CN7. He did the run at the very large Lake Eyre in South Australia, which for most of the time is a dry salt flat.