For as long as cars have existed, drivers and manufacturers have always competed to find out who has the fastest car in the world. The first approved speed record dates back to 1898i.e. just 12 years later than the presentation of the Benz Patent Motorwagen, the first internal combustion engine car in history. The winner on that occasion was the French driver Gaston de Chasseloup-Laubat, who aboard his Jeanteaud traction electric reached i 63.13 kilometers per hour. Since then, of course, the speed bar has been raised over and over again, even reaching the breaking the sound barrier with the Ssc Thrust by Andy Green. But beyond the cold numbers, behind the speed record attempts there are stories of real sporting feats, of courage, preparation and engineering genius. In this review we retrace some of the most fascinating and significant, from the speed pioneers of the early twentieth century to the German follies of the Thirties on the Avus, up to more recent times with the historic records for road cars conquered by Bugatti.
