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The land speed record ( LSR) or absolute land speed record is the highest speed achieved by a person using a vehicle on land. By a 1964 agreement between the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) and Fédération Internationale de Motocyclisme (FIM), respective governing bodies for racing in automobiles and motorcycles (two or three wheels), both bodies recognise as the absolute LSR whatever is the highest speed record achieved across any of their various categories. While the three-wheeled Spirit of America set an FIM-validated LSR in 1963, all subsequent LSRs are by vehicles in FIA Category C ("Special Vehicles") in either class JE (jet engine) or class RT (rocket powered).
FIA LSRs are officiated and validated by its regional or national affiliate organizations. Speed measurement is standardized over a course measuring either or , Arithmetic mean over two runs with flying start (commonly called "passes") Regulations for Record Attempts – CHAPTER 2 – FIA going in opposite directions within one hour. A new record mark must exceed the previous one by at least one percent to be validated.
The first automobile record regulator was the Automobile Club de France, which proclaimed itself arbiter of the record in about 1902.
Different clubs had different standards and did not always recognize the same world records
(2025). 9780786412358, McFarland. ISBN 9780786412358 until 1924, when the Association Internationale des Automobile Clubs Reconnus (AIACR) introduced new regulations: two passes in opposite directions (to negate the effects of wind) averaged with a maximum of 30 minutes (later more) between runs, average gradient of the racing surface not more than 1 percent, timing gear accurate within 0.01sec, and cars must be drive wheel.Northey, p.1163. National or regional auto clubs (such as AAA and SCTA) had to be AIACR members to ensure records would be recognized.Northey, p.1164. The AIACR became the FIA in 1947. Controversy arose in 1963: Spirit of America was not recognized due to its being a three-wheeler (leading the Fédération Internationale de Motocyclisme to certify it as a three-wheel motorcycle record when the FIA refused) and not wheel-driven so the FIA introduced a special jet and rocket propelled class.Northey, p.1166. No holder of the absolute record since has been wheel-driven.
In the U.S. and Australia, record runs are often done on salt flats, so the cars are often called salt cars.
In 1906, Dorothy Levitt broke the women's world speed record for the flying kilometer, recording a speed of and receiving the sobriquet the "Fastest Girl on Earth". She drove a six-cylinder Napier motorcar, a 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).
In 1963, Paula Murphy drove a Studebaker Avanti to at the Bonneville Salt Flats as part of Andy Granatelli's attempt on the overall record. In 1964, she was asked by the tire company Goodyear to try to improve her own record, which she raised to in Walt Arfons's jet dragster Avenger. The rival tire company Firestone and Art Arfons hit back against Goodyear and Walt Arfons when Betty Skelton drove Art's Cyclops to achieve a two-way average of in September 1965.
Five weeks later, Goodyear hit back against Firestone with Lee Breedlove. While recordkeeping has not been as extensive, a report in 1974 confirmed that a record was held by Lee Breedlove, the wife of then overall record holder Craig Breedlove, who piloted her husband's Spirit of America – Sonic I to a record in 1965. 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." Knowingly Navigating the Unknown ", Maria Russo, The New York Times, May 7, 2013
In 1976, the women's absolute record was set by Kitty O'Neil, in the jet-powered, three-wheeled SMI Motivator, at the Alvord Desert. Held back by her contract with a sponsor and using only 60 percent of her car's power, O'Neil reached an average speed of .
On October 9, 2013, driver Jessi Combs, in a vehicle of the North American Eagle Project running at the Alvord Desert, raised the women's four-wheel land speed class record with an official run of , surpassing Breedlove's 48-year-old record. Combs continued with the North American Eagle Project, whose ongoing target is the overall land speed record; as part of that effort, Combs was killed, on August 27, 2019, during an attempt to raise the four-wheel record. In late June 2020, the Guinness Book of Records reclassified the August 27, 2019, speed runs as meeting its requirements, and Combs was posthumously credited with the record at , noting she was the first to break the record in 40 years.
| Electric | 39.24||63.15|| || | Conducted over from a . | ||||||||
| Electric | |||||||||
| Electric | 43.93||70.31|| || | | ||||||||
| Electric | 49.93||80.35|| || | | ||||||||
| Electric | 57.65||92.78|| || | | ||||||||
| Electric | 65.79||105.88|| || | First purpose-designed land speed racer First record over | ||||||||
| Steam car | |||||||||
| Internal combustion | First internal combustion powered record | ||||||||
| Internal combustion V4, 9.2-litre, 60 bhp | Posthumus, Cyril. Land Speed Record: A complete history of the record-breaking cars from 39 to 600+ mph (Osprey Publishing, Reading, 1971) | ||||||||
| Internal combustion | |||||||||
| Internal combustion | |||||||||
| Internal combustion | |||||||||
| January 12, 1904 | New Baltimore, United States | Henry Ford | Ford 999 Racer | Internal combustion | 91.37 | 147.05 | Cars Against the Clock, The World Land Speed Record, Robert B. Jackson (New York, Henry Z. Walck, Inc.), p.19, | ||
| First record over , 2 months after City of Truro's. | |||||||||
| Steam | First record over . First faster than contemporary rail speed record. Fastest steam-powered land vehicle until 2009.[3] – The British Steam Car Challenge | ||||||||
| First run using electronic timing | |||||||||
| Internal combustion: inline-4 Benz engine | 199.70 | First 2-way record, set at Brooklands under new Association Internationale des Automobile Clubs Reconnus (AIACR) 2-way rule | |||||||
| The third and last time the record was set at Brooklands | |||||||||
| Internal combustion: inline-6 FIAT A.12 aero engine | 234.98 | Fastest land speed record ever on a public road | |||||||
| Internal combustion: V12 Sunbeam aero engine | 235.22 | First land speed record by Malcolm Campbell | |||||||
| Internal combustion: V12 Sunbeam aero engine | 242.8 | First person to travel on land at over Scott A. G. M. Crawford, "Campbell, Sir Malcolm (1885–1948)", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, Jan 2011 accessed 20 April 2013 | |||||||
| April 27, 1926 | Pendine, United Kingdom | J. G. Parry-Thomas | Babs | Internal combustion: V12 Liberty L-12 aero engine | 169.29 | 270.864 | 168.74 | 269.984 | |
| Internal combustion: V12 Liberty L-12 aero engine | 275.341 | 274.590 | |||||||
| Internal combustion: W12 Napier Lion aero engine | |||||||||
| The first car to reach a speed over 200 mph (320 km/h)Holthusen, Peter J.R. (1986). The Land Speed Record | |||||||||
| Northey, Tom (1974). "Land Speed Record: The Fastest Men on Earth". In Tom Northey. World of Automobiles. Vol. 10 (London: Orbis), pp.1164–5. | |||||||||
| Segrave was knighted for this effortNorthey, p.1165. | |||||||||
| Campbell was knighted for this effort | |||||||||
| First pass. | |||||||||
| First pass, first absolute record set at Bonneville | |||||||||
| Internal combustion: 2 × V12 Rolls-Royce R supercharged aero engines | |||||||||
| Internal combustion: 2 × W12 Napier Lion supercharged aero engines | 592.091 | ||||||||
| Internal combustion: 2 × W12 Napier Lion supercharged aero engines | 634.39 | First single pass at over 400 mph (402 mph) | |||||||
| July 17, 1964 | Lake Eyre, Australia | Donald Campbell | Bluebird CN7 | Turboshaft: 1 × Bristol Proteus gas turbine | 403.10 | 648.73 | Last wheel driven absolute record. |
| Turbojet | Initially considered unofficial since the vehicle had 3 wheels. Later ratified by FIM. | |
| Turbojet | ||
| Turbojet | ||
| Cars Against the Clock, The Fastest Men on Earth, Clifton, Paul, New York, The John Day Company, page 238, L.C. 66-15097 | ||
| 576.553 | 927.872||576.553||927.872| | |
| First thrust powered record to be ratified by the FIA | ||
| Rocket | ||
| Turbojet: 1 × Rolls-Royce Avon | ||
| Turbofan: 2 × Rolls-Royce Spey | 1149.303 | |
| Turbofan: 2 × Rolls-Royce Spey | 1227.986 | First to break the supersonic speed |
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