Built for speed

The first vehicle to break the 100 kmh (62 mph) barrier was the odd-looking La Jamais Contente ("The Never Satisfied"). Perched atop its metal, torpedo-shaped fuselage, which was attached to a wooden carriage, Belgian engineer Camille Jenatzy piloted the contraption to 105.9 kmh (66 mph) on April 29, 1899, at Achères, Yvelines near Paris. Two direct-drive electric motors powered the rear wheels — yep, EVs were invented before the turn of the 20th century — and produced about 68 horsepower.

Bing Images: La Jamais Contente

Henry Ford may be best known for the Model T and the modern assembly line, but the foundation of the Ford badge was built on race cars. The 999, which was originally called the Arrow and is often referred to as the "Red Devil" by enthusiasts, was essentially a massive 18.8-liter inline-4 engine mounted on a bare chassis. In 1904, Henry Ford piloted the car himself to a new land-speed record of 91.37 mph across frozen Lake St. Clair, in Michigan. In the heady early days of land-speed records, Ford's milestone didn't stand long, but it provided a much-needed boost of publicity for the nascent Ford Motor Co.

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On the 2-wheeled side of things, New Yorker Glenn Curtiss set the first motorcycle land-speed record — albeit unofficial — in Yonkers, N.Y., with a speed of 64 mph in 1903. His next record, though also unofficial and set four years later in Ormond Beach, Fla., was the most impressive: "Hell Rider" Curtiss hit an amazing 136.27 mph, a speed that would not be beat on two wheels for 23 years. The feat caused the media to dub him "the fastest man in the world," and it eventually landed his V8-powered 4,000cc bike in the Smithsonian Institution.

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This record would stand for more than a century. On Jan. 26, 1906, the Stanley Rocket Racer achieved a speed of 127.66 mph. As a land-speed record for an automobile, it stood until 1911; impressive, yes, but more incredibly it stood until 2009 as a record for steam-powered vehicles. The vehicle had a front-mounted, vertical fire-tube steam boiler with a vaporizing gas burner underneath; reinforcing the whole thing were lengths of piano wire wrapped tightly around the boiler. Yet although it sounded like a high-speed death trap, there was never a documented case of any model from the short-lived Stanley brand exploding during use.

Bing: Stanley Rocket Racer

There's always been something to be said for the claim of world's fastest production car. The Bugatti Type 43 was the first passenger car to break the 100-mph barrier. It was propelled by a supercharged 2.3-liter engine that developed 120 horsepower — the same one from the Bugatti Type 35B that won the French Grand Prix in 1929 — and could accelerate from zero to 60 mph in less than 12 seconds, a figure that was almost as impressive for the era as the triple-digit top speed.

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Craig Breedlove's record-setting 408.31 mph in the Spirit of America turbojet tricycle in 1963 ushered in a new era of land-speed challenges: the era of jet- and rocket-propulsion vehicles. The Spirit of America screamed across the Bonneville Salt Flats powered by a massive GE J47 jet engine — the same type used in an F-86 Sabre fighter plane — and the ratifying bodies of such records were forced to create a new category for such non-wheel-driven cars, as well as a separate category for three-wheeled vehicles. The absolute land-speed record has been held by jet- and rocket-powered cars ever since.

Bing Videos: Spirit of America

While in some ways, the Nuna 2 is the most technologically advanced vehicle on this list — it uses technology from the European Space Agency's Smart-1 spacecraft — it's hardly the fastest. The vehicle's top speed is only 105 mph, which makes it the fastest solar car on the planet, but still far slower than Curtiss' record-setting motorbike from 1907. With 97 square feet of solar panels, the Nuna 2 was able to cover 3,000 miles of Australian roadway at an average speed of 60 mph, using no additional fuel source whatsoever, to win the World Solar Challenge in 2003.

Bing Images: Nuna 2 Solar Car

The fastest car across ice has come a long way since 1904, when Henry Ford tackled a frozen Lake St. Clair in the Ford 999. Just one month after 4-time World Rally Champion Juha Kankkunen piloted a $286,695 Bentley Continental Supersports convertible across a frozen expanse of the Baltic Sea at 205.48 mph, fellow Finn Janne Laitinen in February 2011 piloted an Audi RS6 slightly faster, to 206.05 mph on the Gulf of Bothnia in Oulu, Finland. And while the 621-horsepower Bentley sported a roll cage, rear parachute and some stability-enhancing aerodynamic modifications, the Audi was completely stock, save for studded winter tires.

Bing Videos: Audi RS6

We all know the Bugatti Veyron Super Sport is the current record-holder for world's fastest production vehicle, with the ability to reach a whopping 267.86 mph. But in the 1990s, the fastest vehicle in the world — not to mention most expensive, at just less than $1 million — was the instantly iconic McLaren F1. At 231 mph out of the gate, it absolutely trounced the next-fastest supercar, the 213 mph Jaguar XJ220. In fact, the carbon-fiber F1 road car was so fast and so sleek and handled so beautifully that it even beat out a host of purpose-built race cars to claim the 24 Hours of Le Mans title in 1995.

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At more than 54 feet long and 12 feet wide and weighing in at more than 10 tons, the Thrust SSC is enormous. It's powered by two Rolls-Royce Spey turbofan engines that pump out the equivalent of 110,000 horsepower and can propel the big beast to a top speed of Mach 1.02. The SSC has held the absolute land-speed record since Oct. 15, 1997, when Royal Air Force pilot Andy Green took it to 763.03 mph across the Black Rock Desert in Nevada. Other teams, such as Bloodhound SSC and American Eagle Project, are looking to challenge this record, but so far haven't been able to beat it.

Bing Images: Thrust SSC

Josh Condon has covered everything from nanotechnology to champagne and caviar for the likes of The New York Times, Popular Science, Men's Journal, Cargo and RL Magazine. He's recently relocated from Brooklyn, N.Y., to Los Angeles and is spending way, way more time in his car as a result.

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