British engineers and drivers have dominated the world land speed record over the last century. The current record of 763mph, which was supersonic and achieved in the Nevada desert, has stood since 15th October 1997. It is held by RAF fighter pilot, Andy Green (1962-) from Warwickshire. In 2006 he also broke the record for the diesel-powered category, with 350mph.
When first noted, top speeds were astonishingly slow by today’s standards, at around 40mph. French, Belgian and American drivers gradually raised the bar before WW1, but there have been almost a dozen British men trading the record between them since then. The Americans returned with the advent of jet-powered and rocket engines, but since 1983 the UK has retaken the lead. That was the year that Edinburgh-born Richard Noble (1946-) achieved 633mph in Thrust2, the predecessor to ThrustSSC, Green’s car with two Rolls-Royce Spey engines.
The first to take the record under the official FIA/FIM rules of taking the average speed between two points on the track, driving one way then the other, was Lydston Hornsted (1883-1957) with 124mph in 1914. The last record-breaker before the jets arrived was another Briton, Donald Campbell (1921-67), with 403mph in 1964. He later died attempting to improve his water speed record.
(Top image of record-breaking 27-litre car in 1923 driven by J.G. Parry-Thomas: Georg Sander at Flickr.com / CC BY-NC 2.0)
