Land speed racing#Records by class

The sport's origins date to the 1930s with the Mormon Meteor at Bonneville Speedway in Utah and in California, when the Southern California Timing Association first held meets for a variety of hot rodded vehicles.

The SCTA began hosting Speed Week at Bonneville in August 1949 (then called the Bonneville Nationals{{cite magazine |title=75th anniversary of Bonneville Speedweek |magazine=Hot Rod |date=January 2024 |pages=16–18 |location=US}}), 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 {{cvt|193.54|mph|km/h|abbr=on}}. 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 {{convert|333.35|mph|abbr=on}}.<

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.{{Cite web|url=https://www.fia.com/sites/default/files/2019_appendix_d.pdf|title=FIA World Record Requirements|date=12 March 2019|website=Federation Internationale De L'Automobile|access-date=1 September 2019}}

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.{{citation needed|date=March 2018}} 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.

File:Miss Dorothy Levitt, in a 26hp Napier, Brooklands, 1908.jpg, 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.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).{{cite web|url=http://www.btinternet.com/~rhobbs/womtime.htm |title=Women in Motorsport - Timeline |publisher=Btinternet.com |access-date=2010-10-17 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20120724160016/http://www.btinternet.com/~rhobbs/womtime.htm |archive-date=2012-07-24 |url-status=dead }}

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. The feat was so great that the newspapers at the time named her "Queen of Speed".{{Cite web|url=http://balconistasa.com/2019/12/05/a-bela-e-tragica-historia-de-helle-nice/|title=A bela e trágica história de Hellé Nice|date=2019-12-05|website=Balconista SA|language=pt-BR|access-date=2020-02-04}}

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 {{convert|308.506|mph|km/h|abbr=on}} in 1965.{{Citation

| last = Twite

| first = Mike.

| title = Breedlove: Towards the sound barrier

| journal = World of Automobiles, Orbis Publishing

| volume = 2

| year = 1974

| pages = 231

}} 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."[https://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/07/books/rachel-kushner-author-of-the-flamethrowers.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0 Knowingly Navigating the Unknown] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151031172718/http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/07/books/rachel-kushner-author-of-the-flamethrowers.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0 |date=October 31, 2015 }}", Maria Russo, The New York Times, May 7, 2013

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.{{cite web|last=Ellen Jares|first=Sue|title=The Renaissance Woman of Danger—That's Tiny Kitty O'Neil|url=http://www.people.com/people/archive/article/0,,20067351,00.html|work=People|access-date=7 January 2014}}{{cite web|last=Phinizy|first=Coles|title=A Rocket Ride To Glory And Gloom|url=http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1091963/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140108025127/http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1091963/|url-status=dead|archive-date=8 January 2014|work=SI Vault|access-date=7 January 2014}}{{cite web|title=Deaf stuntwoman Kitty O'Neil sets women's land-speed record|url=http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/deaf-stuntwoman-kitty-oneil-sets-womens-land-speed-record|work=History|access-date=7 January 2014}}

On August 20, 2019, 43 years later, American professional racer, television personality, and metal fabricator Jessi Combs 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 Guinness 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.{{citation needed|date=January 2021}}

{{Main|Motorcycle land speed record}}

There is no "wheel-driven" category as such.{{cite web|url=http://www.ugofadini.com/lsrwdold.html|title=Who holds the "wheel-driven" LSR?|last=Fadini|first=Ugo|date=20 August 2002|access-date=2008-11-09}} 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.{{cite web|url=http://www.ugofadini.com/lsrwdnew.html|title=Don Vesco becomes undisputed holder of the "wheel-driven" LSR|last=Fadini |first=Ugo |date=17 August 2002|access-date=2008-11-09}}

File:Burlkand 411 Streamliner 2008.jpg, driven by Tom Burkland on the Bonneville Salt Flats, holds the current piston-engined wheel-driven land speed record]]

In 2008 Tom Burkland broke the piston-engined wheel-driven record for the flying mile, recording a speed of {{convert|415.896|mph|3|abbr=on}}. He drove the Burkland family streamliner powered by two 450+ cubic inch-displacement supercharged Donovan engines (bought second-hand), with crankshafts bolted together nose-to-nose, running on methanol.{{cite web|url=http://www.ugofadini.com/burklandstory1.html |title=Ugo Fadini Burkland Family Streamliner |publisher=Ugofadini.com |date=2008-12-27 |access-date=2010-10-17}}{{cite web|url=http://www.chevyasylum.com/lsr/bsf2008/shootout/burkland/Welcome.html |title=Ray the Rat's Chevy Asylum |publisher=Chevyasylum.com |access-date=2010-10-17}}

File:Speed Demon 2010.jpg driven by George Poteet on the Bonneville Salt Flats in 2010]]

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 {{convert|299|cid|cc|abbr=on}} aluminum block 'Hellfire' V8, built by Kenny Duttweiler.{{cite web|url=http://www.cameltoe.net/News_View.aspx?Articleid=124 |title=Speed Demon |publisher=Cameltoe.net |date=2010-09-15 |access-date=2010-10-17}} Their effort was thwarted by a number of parts failures. The team stated their intention to return in 2011 to set a record over {{convert|450|mph|0|abbr=on}}, and at the 2011 Bonneville Speed Week, Poteet achieved {{convert|426|mph|abbr=on}}Squatriglia, Chuck. "This is what 426 mph looks like." Autopia. Wired. August 24, 2011.[https://www.wired.com/autopia/2011/08/video-this-is-what-426-mph-looks-like/]

File:Treit and Davenport 2012.jpg]]

In 2012, the Target 550 team of Marlo Treit and Les Davenport planned to raise the record for this class to more than {{convert|500|mph|abbr=on}} in Viking 31, built by Jim Hume. Powered by two Dodge hemis with Whipple supercharger, it has a frontal area of {{convert|8.61|sqft|m2|abbr=on}} and is more than {{convert|40|ft|m|abbr=on}} long. The model was tested in the Western Washington University wind tunnel, with assistance from Michael Seal.{{cite web|url=http://www.target550.com/index.html |title=Treit & Davenport |publisher=Target550.com |access-date=2010-10-17}}

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.{{Cite web|url=https://www.thedrive.com/news/23726/heres-what-a-427-mph-crash-on-the-bonneville-salt-flats-looks-like|title=Here's What A 427-MPH Crash on the Bonneville Salt Flats Looks Like|first=Kyle|last=Cheromcha|website=The Drive|date=20 September 2018 |access-date=2 December 2019}}

• Drag racing
• Hot rod
• Land speed record
• Street racing

{{reflist}}

• {{Official website|http://www.aussieinvader.com/|Aussie Invader official website}} - Australian challengers to the supersonic showdown
• [http://www.uklandspeedracingassociation.co.uk/ The UK Land Speed Racing Association] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100824023201/http://www.uklandspeedracingassociation.co.uk/ |date=2010-08-24 }}
• [http://speedrecordclub.com/ 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.
• [http://www.samuelhawley.com/lsr.html The Land Speed Record in the Sixties: an on-line collection]
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20170303072929/https://www.landspeedrecord.co/ Land speed Record site for dedicated enthusiasts]
• [http://www.landracing.com/ Landracing.com]
• [http://www.scta-bni.org/ SCTA site]
• [https://bonnevillespeedtrials.com/ Bonneville Motorcycle Speed Trials]

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Category:Record progressions