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Land speed racing

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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.[citation needed]

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] 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
mph km/h mph km/h
September 9, 1960 Bonneville Salt Flats, USA United States Mickey Thompson Challenger I 4 x GMC 6-71 Supercharged Pontiac 389[citation needed] V8s 406.60 654.36 Piston-engined record with modified regular production automotive engines
July 17, 1964 Lake Eyre, Australia United Kingdom Donald Campbell Bluebird CN7 Turboshaft: 1 x 4,000 hp (3,000 kW) Bristol Proteus 403.10[11] 648.73 Last wheel-driven attempt at the absolute record
November 12, 1965 Bonneville Salt Flats, USA United States Bob Summers Goldenrod 4 x fuel injected Chrysler 426 hemi V8s[citation needed] 409.277 658.526 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, 1991 Bonneville Salt Flats, USA United States Elwin "Al" Teague Spirit of '76 (Torque Speed-o-Motive[clarification needed] streamliner) 14-71[citation needed]-supercharged Chrysler hemi V8 425.050 684.052 409.978 659.796 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, 2001 Bonneville Salt Flats, USA United States Don Vesco Vesco Turbinator Lycoming T55-L-11A SA 458.196 737.395 458.444 737.794 [10] Group IX, Class 3:[12] gas turbine engine, unloaded weight > 1000 kg[13]
September 26, 2008 Bonneville Salt Flats, USA United States Tom Burkland Burkland 411 Streamliner 2 x 8-71[citation needed]-supercharged Donovan Hemi V8 Engines 415.896 669.319 Piston-engined record[10] Group I, Class 11:[12] 2 or 4 stroke engine with supercharger, cylinder capacity > 8000 cm3[13]
August 25, 2009 Bonneville Salt Flats, USA United States Roger Schroer Venturi Buckeye Bullet Electric motor by Venturi Automobiles 303.025 487.672 302.877 487.433 1st electric vehicle to go over 300 mph[14]
August 24, 2010 Bonneville Salt Flats, USA United States Roger Schroer Venturi Buckeye Bullet Electric motor by Venturi Automobiles 307.905 495.526 307.666 495.140 [14]
September 21, 2010 Bonneville Salt Flats, USA United States Charles E. Nearburg Spirit of Rett streamliner Reher-Morrison Nitrous oxide-injected carbureted DRCE 2[citation needed] V8 Engine 414.477 667.037 414.316 666.776 Non-supercharged piston-engine record[10] Group II, Class 11:[12]
September 17, 2012 Bonneville Salt Flats, USA United States George Poteet Speed Demon streamliner Twin-turbocharged Dart small-block V8s [15] 439.562 707.408 439.024 706.540 Group I, Class 10[16]
August 11, 2018 Bonneville Salt Flats, USA United States Danny Thompson Challenger II 2 x nitromethane-fuelled fuel injected BAE hemi V8s 448.757 722.204 Normally-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. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  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. ^ a b c d e f 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. ^ a b c d e "List of Records Category A" (PDF) (in French). FIA. 2011-01-04. Retrieved 2011-05-09.
  13. ^ a b c d "Appendix B: Category A". Records. FIA. Archived from the original on 2008-11-16. Retrieved 2008-11-09. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  14. ^ a b Template:FrLISTE 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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