Ever since the invention of the wheel, humankind has had a desire for speed. Enter the first engines some thousands of years later and that desire has only grown. Whether it’s on the racetrack or the highway, people simply love the exhilarating feeling of going fast, despite the dangers of car accidents.
That need for speed encompasses some people’s lives, to the point that they spend their days in pursuit of setting groundbreaking records. Drivers and manufacturers alike from around the globe continue to outdo one another, setting these top world car speed records.
Fastest Side Wheelie in a Car
Vesa Kivimaki from Finland set this worldwide record in August of 2016. The stunt driver drove a BMW 330 with Nokian tires, achieving 186.269 kilometers per hour on just two wheels. It’s a sight to behold and amazing that the car doesn’t simply tip over.
Fastest Standing Mile – Street Car
Johnny Bohmer of the United States set this record in October of 2012 for the street car category. He hit 283.232 miles-per-hour at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida with a 1,700 horsepower 2006 Ford GT. Keep in mind that the vehicles in these competitions are allowed to be heavily modified, so much so that Bohmer relied on a team of mechanical experts to make this record a reality.
Fastest Standing Mile – Electric Car
With the same rules in play, Johnny Bohmer also set the record for fastest standing mile in an electric car with a speed of 304.94 kilometers-per-hour. The car used was a Genovation GXE converted to run entirely off an electric motor.
Fastest Police Car
Try to outrun the police in most countries and you’ll ending up needing the help of attorneys at the Law Office of Jeremy Rosenthal once you cause an accident. Try to outrun the 407 kilometer-per-hour Dubai police cars and they’ll just laugh. Their Bugatti Veyron packs 1,000 horsepower in a 16-cylinder engine that goes from 0 to 60 in just 2.5 seconds.
Top Land Speed
Thrust SSC and driver Andy Green set the record for the fastest speed recorded in land in 1997. Their run in the Black Rock Desert hit 1227.985 kilometers-per-hour, fast enough to break the sound barrier, with a rocket car powered by two Rolls-Royce Spey 202 jet engines.
Fastest Bumper Car
Technically still a car, The Stig from BBC’s Top Gear set this record in 2017. His dodgem bumper car built by Colin Furze reached a top speed of 161.476 kilometers-per-hour, which is just over 100 miles-per-hour. To put that in perspective, the average bumper car at an amusement park only travels at 5 miles-per-hour.
Top Space Speed
New to the world of records, the Tesla Roadster is now the fastest car traveling through space after founder Elon Musk decided to launch one with SpaceX. Talk about a stunt for customer value management. Launched into heliocentric orbit, the top speed was 33.5 kilometers-per-second relative to the sun (or 11.15 kilometers relative to Earth). Believe it or not, that’s faster than any lunar rover.
