42 Land speed record people

Stan Barrett is a Hollywood stuntman, stunt coordinator actor, and former stock car racing driver. His biggest act was however outside the movie world. On December 17, 1979, he attempted to break the land speed record, and the sound barrier in the Budweiser Rocket rocket-powered three-wheel vehicle. His calculated speed was 739.666 miles per hour,, which would have made Barrett the first man to break the sound barrier in a land vehicle. The attempt was surrounded by controversy and the speed was never officially recorded. Barrett also raced in 19 Winston Cup Series races between 1980 and 1990, posting two top ten finishes.

Lee Bible was an American garage operator and a racing-car driver.

Craig Breedlove is an American professional race car driver and a five-time world land speed record holder. He was the first person in history to reach 500 mph (800 km/h), and 600 mph (970 km/h), using several turbojet-powered vehicles, all named Spirit of America.

Donald Malcolm Campbell, was a British speed record breaker who broke eight absolute world speed records on water and on land in the 1950s and 1960s. He remains the only person to set both world land and water speed records in the same year (1964). He died during a water speed record attempt at Coniston Water in the Lake District, England.

Major Sir Malcolm Campbell was a British racing motorist and motoring journalist. He gained the world speed record on land and on water at various times during the 1920s and 1930s using vehicles called Blue Bird, including a 1921 Grand Prix Sunbeam. His son, Donald Campbell, carried on the family tradition by holding both land speed and water speed records.

Otto Wilhelm Rudolf Caracciola was a racing driver from Remagen, Germany. He won the European Drivers' Championship, the pre-1950 equivalent of the modern Formula One World Championship, an unsurpassed three times. He also won the European Hillclimbing Championship three times – twice in sports cars, and once in Grand Prix cars. Caracciola raced for Mercedes-Benz during their original dominating Silver Arrows period, named after the silver colour of the cars, and set speed records for the firm. He was affectionately dubbed Caratsch by the German public, and was known by the title of Regenmeister, or "Rainmaster", for his prowess in wet conditions.

Count Gaston de Chasseloup-Laubat was a French aristocrat and race car driver. He was the son of Prosper, Marquis of Chasseloup-Laubat, minister of the Navy under Napoleon III, and of his American wife Marie-Louise Pilié.

Louis Hervé Coatalen was an automobile engineer and racing driver born in Brittany who spent much of his adult life in Britain and took British nationality. He was a pioneer of the design and development of internal combustion engines for cars and aircraft.

John Rhodes Cobb was an early to mid 20th Century English racing motorist. He was three times holder of the World Land Speed Record, in 1938, 1939 and 1947, set at Bonneville Speedway in Utah, US. He was awarded the Segrave Trophy in 1947. He was killed in 1952 whilst piloting a jet powered speedboat attempting to break the World Water Speed Record on Loch Ness water in Scotland.

Violette Cordery, was a British racing driver and long distance record breaker.

Baron Pierre de Caters was a Belgian adventurer, aviator and car and motorboat racer. In 1908, he was the first Belgian to fly an aircraft.

Raffaele "Ralph" De Palma was an Italian-American racecar driving champion who won the 1915 Indianapolis 500. His entry at the International Motorsports Hall of Fame estimates that he won about 2,000 races. DePalma won the 1908, 1909, 1910, and 1911 American AAA national dirt track championships and is credited with winning 24 American Champ car races. He won the Canadian national championship in 1929. DePalma estimated that he had earned $1.5 million by 1934 after racing for 27 years. He is inducted in numerous halls of fame. He competed on boards and dirt road courses and ovals.

Kaye Ernest Donsky, better known by his nom de course Kaye Don, was an Irish world record breaking car and speedboat racer. He became a motorcycle dealer on his retirement from road racing and set up Ambassador Motorcycles.

Ernest Arthur Douglas Eldridge was a British racing car driver who broke the world land speed record in 1924. His was the last land speed record set on an open road.

Captain George Edward Thomas Eyston MC OBE was a British racing driver in the 1920s and 1930s, and he broke the land speed record three times between 1937 and 1939. He was also an engineer and inventor.

Henry Ford was an American industrialist and business magnate, founder of the Ford Motor Company, and chief developer of the assembly line technique of mass production. By creating the first automobile that middle-class Americans could afford, he converted the automobile from an expensive curiosity into an accessible conveyance that profoundly impacted the landscape of the 20th century.

Maurice Arnold de Forest was an early motor racing driver, aviator and Liberal politician in the United Kingdom.

Sigurd Olson "Sig" Haugdahl was an IMCA "Big Car" champion 1927 – 1932 and an early promoter of stock car racing in the United States.

Victor Hémery was a champion French racecar driver of the early Grand Prix motor racing era.

Lydston Hornsted,, L.G. Hornsted, Cupid, (1883-1957), was the first British holder of the World Land speed record, which he achieved on 24 June 1914 with an official speed of 124 miles per hour at the Brooklands motor racing circuit. His record stood for almost eight years until 17 May, 1922.

David Abbott "Ab" Jenkins was the 24th mayor of Salt Lake City, Utah from 1940 to 1944 and was a professional race car driver. Jenkins' interest in motorsports began with racing motorcycles on dirt tracks and cross country. He then became interested in land speed records at the Bonneville Salt Flats. He was instrumental in establishing Bonneville as a location for such events, and in attracting overseas drivers such as George Eyston and Sir Malcolm Campbell to compete there.

Charles Raymond Keech was a board track and brick track racer in the 1920s. He is best remembered for winning the 1929 Indianapolis 500, and for setting a land speed record.

Richard H. LeSesne was an American photographer, noted for his photography of land speed record attempts on Daytona Beach, Florida, in the 1920s and 1930s. More than merely a recorder of other peoples' efforts, LeSesne achieved some celebrity himself as the photographer of these attempts and his signature may be found on photographs of the period along with those of other team members and even the driver himself.

Dorothy Elizabeth Levitt, was the first British woman racing driver, holder of the world's first water speed record, the women's world land speed record holder, and an author. She was a pioneer of female independence and female motoring, and taught Queen Alexandra and the Royal Princesses how to drive. In 1905 she established the record for the longest drive achieved by a lady driver by driving a De Dion-Bouton from London to Liverpool and back over two days, receiving the soubriquets in the press of the Fastest Girl on Earth, and the Champion Lady Motorist of the World.

Frank Stallworth Lockhart was an American automobile racing driver active in the 1920s, considered by many historians to be a legend in the sport on par with 1960s British World Driving Champion Jim Clark. During a "remarkable if all too short" career, Lockhart won numerous races on dirt, board tracks, the 1926 Indianapolis 500, and set a world land speed record for a distance average. In all, he had nine AAA wins and two vice-championships in two years of competition.

Fred Marriott was an American race car driver. In 1906, he set the world land speed record at 127.659 mph (205.5 km/h) at the Daytona Beach Road Course, while driving the Stanley Land Speed Record Car. This garnered Stanley Motor Carriage Company the Dewar Trophy. A crew of four accompanied the car to Daytona, Marriott was chosen to be driver because he was the only bachelor.

Richard James Anthony Noble, OBE is a Scottish entrepreneur who was holder of the land speed record between 1983 and 1997. He was also the project director of ThrustSSC, the vehicle which holds the current land speed record, set at Black Rock Desert, Nevada in 1997.

John Godfrey Parry-Thomas was a Welsh engineer and motor-racing driver who at one time held the land speed record. He was the first driver to be killed in pursuit of the land speed record.

Reid A. Railton (1895–1977) was a British automotive engineer, and designer of land and water speed record vehicles.

Louis Rigolly, a Frenchman, was the first man to drive a car at over 100 miles per hour (160 km/h).

Cayla (Rivas) Kaolelopono is an American motorcycle racer based in Fresno, California, who set the FIM World Record by reaching a speed of 252.901 km/h, riding a modified Royal Enfield 650cc Twin, in 2018 Bonneville Motorcycle Speed Trials (BMST), held at Bonneville Speedway. While setting the record on 29 August 2018, she was 18 years old. Cayla was backed up by team Royal Enfield and S&S Racing.

Sir Henry O'Neal de Hane Segrave was an early British pioneer in land speed and water speed records. Segrave, who set three land and one water record, was the first person to hold both titles simultaneously and the first person to travel at over 200 miles per hour (320 km/h) in a land vehicle. He died in an accident in 1930 shortly after setting a new world water speed record on Windermere in the Lake District, England. The Segrave Trophy was established to commemorate his life.

Betty Skelton Frankman Erde was a land speed record holder and aerobatics pilot who set 17 aviation and automobile records. She was known as "The First Lady of Firsts", and helped create opportunities for women in aviation, auto racing, astronautics, and advertising.

Waldo Stakes is an American general contractor and designer of high speed vehicles. Stakes is planning to break the world land speed record using a rocket car powered by a second-hand X-15 rocket engine, which he has named the Sonic Wind Land Speed Research Vehicle.

René Stapp was a French racing driver who in 1932 attempted to break the land speed record with one of the most outlandish, and ugliest, cars to ever attempt to do so.

Michael Sturtz

Michael Sturtz is a sculptor, designer, consultant, international speaker, innovator and facilitator of creative thinking. He is the founder of The Crucible, a nonprofit industrial arts school in Oakland, California, United States, and served as its Executive Director from 1999 to 2011.

René Thomas was a French motor racing champion. Thomas was also a pioneer aviator. He won the 1914 Indianapolis 500.

Marion Lee "Mickey" Thompson was an American auto racing builder and promoter.

William Kissam Vanderbilt II was a motor racing enthusiast and yachtsman, and a member of the prominent American Vanderbilt family.

Amherst Villiers (1900–1991) was an English automotive, aeronautical and astronautic engineer and portrait painter. He designed a land speed record-breaking car for Malcolm Campbell, and developed the supercharged "Blower Bentley", driven by Henry Birkin and by James Bond.

Mr Whoppit was the teddy bear mascot of Donald Campbell, the land and water speed record holder. Writing in his 2011 book, Donald Campbell: The Man Behind The Mask, journalist David Tremayne described Whoppit as Campbell's "magic talisman".