Wheel-driven land speed record - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

The wheel-driven land speed record differs from the absolute land speed record

Land speed record

The land speed record is the highest speed achieved by a wheeled vehicle on land. There is no single body for validation and regulation; in practice the Category C flying start regulations are used, officiated by regional or national organizations under the auspices of the Fédération...

in requiring that the vehicle be wheel-driven

Drive wheel

A drive wheel is a roadwheel in an automotive vehicle that receives torque from the powertrain, and provides the final driving force for a vehicle. A two-wheel drive vehicle has two driven wheels, and a four-wheel drive has four, and so-on....

; thus, vehicles that use thrust from a jet engine

Jet engine

A jet engine is a reaction engine that discharges a fast moving jet to generate thrust by jet propulsion and in accordance with Newton's laws of motion. This broad definition of jet engines includes turbojets, turbofans, rockets, ramjets, pulse jets...

or rocket

Rocket

A rocket is a missile, spacecraft, aircraft or other vehicle which obtains thrust from a rocket engine. In all rockets, the exhaust is formed entirely from propellants carried within the rocket before use. Rocket engines work by action and reaction...

are ineligible (although the use of such engines is permitted if they drive the wheels).

Until 1963, the absolute land speed record holder was always a wheel-driven car. The first jet-car to exceed the absolute record was Craig Breedlove

Craig Breedlove

Craig Breedlove is a five-time world land speed record holder. He was the first to reach , , and , using several turbojet-powered vehicles, all named Spirit of America.-Land vehicle speed records :...

's Spirit of America. Since then, no wheel-driven car has held the absolute record.

There is no "wheel-driven" category as such. The Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile

Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile

The Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile is a non-profit association established as the Association Internationale des Automobile Clubs Reconnus on 20 June 1904 to represent the interests of motoring organisations and motor car users...

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.

Since 1963, holders of the wheel-driven land speed record have been:

Date	Location	Driver	Vehicle	Power	Speed over 1 km		Speed over 1 mile		Notes
Date	Location	Driver	Vehicle	Power	mph	km/h	mph	km/h	Notes
July 17, 1964	Lake Eyre Lake Eyre Lake Eyre is the lowest point in Australia, at approximately below sea level, and, on the rare occasions that it fills, it is the largest lake in Australia and 18th largest in the world... , Australia Australia Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...	Donald Campbell Donald Campbell Donald Malcolm Campbell, CBE was a British speed record breaker who broke eight world speed records in the 1950s and 1960s...	Bluebird CN7	Turboshaft Turboshaft A turboshaft engine is a form of gas turbine which is optimized to produce free turbine shaft power, rather than jet thrust...	—		403.10	648.73	FIA's official absolute record-holder until a change in the rules in December 1964 made jetcars eligible.
November 12, 1965	Bonneville Salt Flats, USA	Bob Summers	Goldenrod	IC	—		409.277	658.526	Non-supercharged piston-engine record Group II, Class 11: 2 or 4 stroke engine without supercharger, cylinder capacity > 8000 cm³
August 21, 1991	Bonneville Salt Flats, USA	Elwin "Al" Teague	Spirit of '76 (Torque Speed-o-Motive Streamliner Streamliner A streamliner is a vehicle incorporating streamlining in a shape providing reduced air resistance. The term is applied to high-speed railway trainsets of the 1930s to 1950s, and to their successor "bullet trains". Less commonly, the term is applied to fully faired recumbent bicycles... )	IC supercharged Supercharger A supercharger is an air compressor used for forced induction of an internal combustion engine.The greater mass flow-rate provides more oxygen to support combustion than would be available in a naturally aspirated engine, which allows more fuel to be burned and more work to be done per cycle,... hemi Hemi engine A Hemi engine is an internal combustion engine in which the roof of each cylinder's combustion chambers is of hemispherical form.- History :...	425.050	684.052	409.978	659.796	Piston-engined record Group I, Class 11: 2 or 4 stroke engine with supercharger, cylinder capacity > 8000 cm³ until 2008
October 18, 2001	Bonneville Salt Flats, USA	Don Vesco	Vesco Turbinator	Turboshaft	458.196	737.395	470.444	757.106	Group IX, Class 3: Turbine engine, unloaded weight > 1000 kg
September 26, 2008	Bonneville Salt Flats, USA	Tom Burkland	Burkland 411 Streamliner	IC supercharged Supercharger A supercharger is an air compressor used for forced induction of an internal combustion engine.The greater mass flow-rate provides more oxygen to support combustion than would be available in a naturally aspirated engine, which allows more fuel to be burned and more work to be done per cycle,... hemi Hemi engine A Hemi engine is an internal combustion engine in which the roof of each cylinder's combustion chambers is of hemispherical form.- History :...	—		415.896	669.319	Piston-engined record Group I, Class 11: 2 or 4 stroke engine with supercharger, cylinder capacity > 8000 cm³
September 21, 2010	Bonneville Salt Flats, USA	Charles E. Nearburg	Spirit of Rett streamliner	IC General Motors General Motors General Motors Company , commonly known as GM, formerly incorporated as General Motors Corporation, is an American multinational automotive corporation headquartered in Detroit, Michigan and the world's second-largest automaker in 2010... V8	414.477	667.037	414.316	666.776	Non-supercharged piston-engine record Group II, Class 11:

See also