The fastest land speed record: ThrustSSC’s supersonic 763.035 mph still stands

The fastest land speed record is 763.035 mph (1,227.985 km/h), set by the jet-powered ThrustSSC and officially recognized by the FIA. RAF pilot Andy Green achieved the mark on October 15, 1997, at Black Rock Desert, Nevada, becoming the first person to drive a car faster than the speed of sound on land.

What the “land speed record” means

The absolute land speed record is governed by the Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA). To qualify, a vehicle must complete two runs over a measured course—typically the flying mile and flying kilometre—in opposite directions within one hour. The official speed is the average of those two passes to cancel out wind and gradient effects. This “absolute” record allows thrust-powered vehicles (jet or rocket), provided they maintain continuous contact with the ground through wheels.

Inside the record-setting run

ThrustSSC (for SuperSonic Car), designed by Richard Noble, Glynne Bowsher, Ron Ayers and team, used two Rolls-Royce Spey afterburning turbofan engines originally fitted to British F-4 Phantom fighter jets. On the Black Rock Desert playa—a flat, hard-packed alkali surface—driver Andy Green executed the required back-to-back runs, averaging 763.035 mph over the flying mile and breaking the sound barrier with a measured Mach 1.016, generating an audible sonic boom. The vehicle’s stability and control through the transonic regime were managed by aerodynamic design and careful throttle application, addressing challenges like shockwave formation and directional stability near Mach 1.

The official figures

For precision, the FIA recognizes separate records for the flying mile and flying kilometre distances. On October 15, 1997, ThrustSSC recorded:

These figures highlight the measured distances used in record attempts and the small but important difference between the flying mile and flying kilometre averages.

• Flying mile: 763.035 mph (1,227.985 km/h)
• Flying kilometre: 760.343 mph (1,223.657 km/h)

Together, the paired distances provide a robust, standardized assessment of peak performance that is directly comparable across eras and vehicles.

Other notable benchmarks in land-speed racing

While the absolute record belongs to ThrustSSC, several related milestones are widely tracked by the land-speed community, often under different sanctioning bodies or technical categories.

• Fastest wheel-driven, piston-engined car (SCTA/BNI): George Poteet’s “Speed Demon” streamliner has set the benchmark at over 470 mph, including a 470.015 mph (756.43 km/h) average flying-mile record at the Bonneville Salt Flats in 2020 in the Blown Fuel Streamliner class. This is celebrated as the fastest wheel-driven/piston-car achievement, though it is not the FIA’s absolute world record.
• Wheel-driven turbine streamliners: Teams such as the Vesco family’s “Turbinator II” have recorded one-way speeds above 500 mph at Bonneville (notably a 503 mph one-way run in 2018), illustrating the potential of wheel-driven turbine power, albeit without an FIA-certified two-way world record at that level.

These category-specific milestones underscore how propulsion type, sanctioning body, and certification rules shape the record landscape, even as the absolute global mark remains unchanged since 1997.

What could surpass the record next?

Projects aiming to exceed ThrustSSC’s mark have faced technical and financial hurdles. The Bloodhound LSR program, intended to go beyond 800 mph and ultimately target 1,000 mph, completed high-speed tests to 628 mph (1,010 km/h) in South Africa in 2019 but has since been constrained by funding and program resets. As of 2025, no firm date for an FIA-certified record attempt has been announced, leaving ThrustSSC’s supersonic record intact.

Frequently asked points

These common questions clarify how land-speed records are set and verified.

• Surface: Records are typically set on very flat natural surfaces like Nevada’s Black Rock Desert or Utah’s Bonneville Salt Flats, where long, smooth runs are possible.
• Verification: The FIA certifies world records using calibrated timing over the flying mile and/or kilometre, with two runs in opposite directions within one hour to neutralize environmental effects.
• Propulsion: The absolute record is not limited to wheel-driven power; jet or rocket thrust is allowed as long as the vehicle remains in continuous contact with the ground via its wheels.

Together, these criteria keep the competition fair and technically rigorous while allowing radically different engineering approaches to compete for the same ultimate prize.

Summary

The fastest land speed record is 763.035 mph (1,227.985 km/h), set by Andy Green in the jet-powered ThrustSSC at Black Rock Desert on October 15, 1997, and validated by the FIA. Despite advances in wheel-driven streamliners and ongoing ambitions from programs like Bloodhound, no subsequent effort has yet eclipsed ThrustSSC’s supersonic benchmark.

Has any car hit 1000 mph?

Whereas Thrust SSC achieved its record using a pair of 30 year old engines and salvaged computer systems from military vehicles; Bloodhound SSC is using one of the best engines in the world donated to them by the Royal Air Force – the Rolls Royce EJ200 from a Eurofighter Typhoon jetfighter.

Has a car ever hit 400 mph?

In his Challenger I, he recorded 406.60 mph at the Bonneville Salt Flats, Utah. With out a doubt the coolest salt car ever built.

What is the fastest ground speed record?

763.035 mph
Absolute World Records are for a given distance or elapsed time, independent of Category, Group, or Class. The current holder of the Outright World Land Speed Record is ThrustSSC driven by Andy Green, a twin turbofan jet-powered car which achieved 763.035 mph – 1227.985 km/h – over one mile in October 1997.

What is the top speed record for a car?

YANGWANG U9 Xtreme Is the World’s Fastest Production Car, with Top Speed of 496.22km/h. Papenburg, Germany — YANGWANG, the luxury sub-brand of global new-energy vehicle (NEV) leader BYD, has set a new global production-car top-speed record of 496.22km/h at the ATP Automotive Testing Papenburg test track in Germany.