Land Speed Record Part 1 – The Birth of Speed

It is a source of not a little regret that the days of mighty battles for the Land Speed Record (LSR), where the record changed hands monthly, if not at times daily, have long since gone. The last era of that happening was in the sixties, when Craig Breedlove and the Arfons Brothers - Walt and Art – challenged each other on the Bonneville Salt Flats.

No, it couldn't go both ways. Jenatzy's La Jamais Contente

With the increase in speed came a proportional decline in the number of challengers until we were left relying on Richard Noble and Andy Green to challenge their own record, albeit with a 14 year pause. The seemingly impossible task coupled with the enormous finance required had weeded, and continues to weed, out the realistic challengers to virtually none.

Chasseloup Laubat aboard the Jeantaud. Quite why he
thought the chisel nose would help,when he was perched
up there is not recorded

If the early days of record breaking lack the brutal power and speed of even the next generation of LSR contenders, they are no less interesting, as they chart the very birth of motoring as we know it today, when innovation at workshop level had a long-standing effect on motoring in general.

Of even more interest, particularly in this day and age with its emphasis on renewable energy, is that the first throws of the LSR dice were made by electric- and steam-powered cars. Vehicles driven by petrol were woefully unreliable; their component parts not yet attaining that vital balance that remains such a vital aspect of performance.

It was the French who embraced competition initially. At a meet near Paris, in 1898, no fewer than 54 cars entered and the fastest time of the day was a rousing 18mph (29kmh) set by Camille Jenatzy in a battery-driven vehicle. Men being men, that spurred others on to beat the speed and thus the LSR was born.

First challenger to come forward was Comte Gaston de Chasseloup –Laubat who had been among those beaten by Jenatzy near Paris. The Comte also relied on electrical traction for his car, named Jeantaud and, once again leaving the petrol engine rivals spluttering in his wake, raised the bar to 39.24mph (63.15kmh).

Record breaking in those days was nothing if not civilised and Jenatzy immediately issued a challenge for the two men to meet and settle the matter of who was fastest. Jenatzy struck first and went 41.24mph (66.65kmh) but the Comte retaliated immediately with 43.69mph (70.31kmh).

Only days later, Jematzy – the ‘Red Devil’ on account of his flaming red hair and beard – got to within an ace of 50mph only to once again be beaten by Chasseloup-Laubat, who by this time had cunningly streamlined the Jeantaud by fitting a wedge-shaped nose.

Jenatzy then revealed his latest weapon, the torpedo-shaped La Jamais Contente (the Never Satisfied). Achieving 65.79mph (105.87kmh) he sealed the lid on the very first battle for the LSR.

The next increase was recorded by a steam-powered vehicle created by Leon Serpollet in 1901. Once again the petrol driven cars had to give best to alternative propulsion as Serpollet streaked to 75.06mph (120.79kmh).

But by 1902, the internal combustion engine was in the ascendancy and racing cars from Mors and Mercedes set the next slew of records. By 1905 the 100mph barrier had been breached and the record sat at 109.65mph (176.45kph), the car driven, predictably, by a Frenchman.

Not that the Americans had been idle. Apart from William K Vanderbilt’s 1902 record set in France, no record set on American soil had been accepted by the French as they hadn’t used approved timekeeping apparatus.

Henry Ford's Arrow. Simplify and add lightness?

Henry Ford displayed a rare flash of showmanship and in 1904 piloted his own ‘Arrow’ across frozen Lake St. Clair at 91.37mph (147.04kmh) whilst William K. Vanderbilt made the significant first use of Daytona Beach in Florida to record 92.30mph (148.53kmh). The beach would become the principal venue for record attempts for the next 30 years.

Perhaps the most interesting record attempt by the Americans in the pre-sanctioned days of US record breaking was by another steam-powered vehicle, the Rocket, designed by the Stanley Brothers, who were to remain faithful to steam for traction in their road cars until 1925.

In 1906 driver Fred Marriott reached 121.57mph (195.64kmh) at Daytona in the long and low red car, a figure which the Europeans took 3 years to match. It could have been even worse for, in 1907, a re-engineered Stanley steamer reached ‘in excess of 190mph (305kmh)’ but hit a gulley and was smashed as it tumbled along the beach before it could complete the run. Marriott survived.

Marriott in the Stanley Rocket.

It was the Stanley steamer that showed the Europeans that the future of record breaking would have to rely on custom built vehicles and not the proprietary chassis and engines they had been using up to that point. The Europeans were slow to recognise this and then the First World War put a stop to any further record activities, but not before possibly the most significant development of the rules.

The Stanley Rocket. Also only a one-way vehicle, albeit
the fastest thing around

                                                                       After L.G. Hornsted had raised the official LSR to 124.10mph (199.71kph) in a 21.5 litre Benz in 1914, the governing body of motor sport, the A.I.A.C.R (Association Internationale des Automobiles Clubs Reconnus) decreed that, from that point on, all record attempts would have to be made over runs in opposite directions, to even out discrepancies in course gradient and wind direction. That meant that the record would be the average of elapsed times in each direction, with 1 hour allowed for turning round, refuelling, changing tyres etc. It was this rule that thwarted many a record attempt whilst defining all record breaking activities.

The Blitzen Benz

When the First World War came to its bloody close in 1918, the internal combustion engine had been developed out of all recognition and so the stage was set for the great years of the LSR.