Archive for the ‘Biography’ Category
The Fastest Drivers That Ever Cruised the Earth
While the history of the car goes back to the 18th century, it took more than a hundred years later for drivers and engineers alike to seriously start pushing the speed barrier. On the 18th of December 1898, Count Gaston de Chasseloup-Laubat of France became the first driver to establish a land speed record, when he was timed by an autocar magazine to complete a kilometer run in an electric car. He took 57 seconds, an average speed of 63km per hour. His accomplishment also disproved the popular notion at his time that a human being will likely to suffocate from travelling at such high speed.
The first time the 60 mph (100 kph) mark was overtaken was on April 29th 1899, when the French count’s new record was superseded by Camille Jenatzy with a new milestone of 65.79 mph on the Acheres road. It was also accomplished by an electric vehicle, rightfully christened La Jamais Content (The Never Satisfied).
Five years later, the French driver Louis Rigolly, not satisfied with his prior achievement of 92 mph, had the vehicle personally modified during a special gatherings of race drivers. It was during July 1904 that Rigolly cruised along the 1 kilometre stretch in the Ostend beach under 22 seconds, with a speed over 100 mph.
A speed of 150 mph was first accomplished by Sir Malcolm Campbell of United Kingdom in 1925. In March that year he was credited with the Land Speed Record, which he broke on Pendine Sands driving the old 350 hp V twelve Sunbeam at 150.87 mph. He would later go on to break the 250 mph and 300 mph barriers.
After the Second World War the land speed bar was raised beyond 400 mph, when the admission of gas turbines and jet propelled cars confused the issue to some extent. In 1947, at the dawn of this new era of fastest ever records, John Cobb exceeded 400 mph in a singular direction in the Railton Special at Utah in September, finishing with an average speed of 394.196 mph. His speed over the mile from south to north of the course was 403.135 mph.
For the past 14 years, the fastest land record has been kept by the British designed ThrustSSC, with Andy Green of the Royal Air Force as its pilot. With twin Rolls Royce turbofan engines built in, akin to the ability of F-4 fighter jets, it was the first ever wheeled vehicle to smash the sound barrier. The ThrustSSC conquered a speed record of 763 mph on October 15, 1997.
For over 10 years, automotive engineers have bee working on a superior vehicle to surpass the landmark set by the Thrust SSC. The most ambitious of these projects is the Bloodhound SSC, developed by the same person who designed the Thrust SSC, Richard Noble. He had hoped that his latest creation will beat its predecessor by the largest margin ever in the history of Land Speed Records, ideally by up to 1000 mph.
Before any attempt to break the world speed record, you first need a licence to drive. These days it’s quite helpful to have an online driving test – just don’t get distracted with all the driving games on the Internet.. Also published at The Fastest Drivers That Ever Cruised the Earth.
