Random encounters with the unusual: Andover’s History of Land Speed Records

Let me start by saying that I don't have a fetish for pedestrian underpasses. However, sometimes the art work in pedestrian underpasses needs photographing before it's destroyed by other less able artists.

The first piece of underpass artwork that caught my attention was a mural in Woking, which summarised the destruction of Woking by the Martin Tripods in H.G. Wells' "The War of the Worlds". My eye was caught again this month whilst I was walking through Andover. Between Junction Road and the town centre there is an underpass that is adorned with pictures of vehicles that have previously held land speed records. The mural was too good to just pass by, so I had to stop and take some pictures.

Working from the dates and speeds that are shown on the mural I believe the vehicles depicted are those in the below table. However, it should be noted that some of the speeds detailed in the mural differ from those quoted on Wikipedia, also it seems that some records were measured over a mile and some over a kilometre, which gives some variability to the numbers. It is also interesting that the mural depicts a vehicle called “Goldenrod” from 1965, which going by Wikipedia was not a record holder as it was slower than “Green Monster” from 1964!

Name	Power Source	Date	Record (mph)
Jeantaud Duc	Electric	1898	57.65
La Jamais Contente	Electric	1899	65.79
Gardner-Serpollet Oeuf de Pâques	Steam	1902	75.07
Ford 999 Racer	Internal Combustion	1904	103.5
Stanley Rocket	Steam	1906	127.66
Benz No 3 200 hp (150 kW)	Internal Combustion	1914	124.10
Sunbeam 350HP	Internal Combustion	1925	150.87
Sunbeam	Internal Combustion	1925	152.33
Sunbeam Slug (Mystery) 1000HP	Aeroengine	1927	203.792
Blue Bird	Aeroengine	1928	206.956
Golden Arrow	Aeroengine	1929	231.446
Blue Bird	Internal Combustion	1935	301.129
Railton Mobil Special	Internal Combustion	1947	394.200
Blue Bird CN7	Turboshaft	1964	403.100
Green Monster	Turbojet	1964	434.02
Goldenrod	Internal Combustion	1965	409.277
The Blue Flame	Rocket	1970	622.407
Thrust 2	Turbojet	1983	633.468
Thrust SSC	Turbofan	1997	763.035

So it seems that in the 100 years from 1898 to 1997 man increased his maximum land speed from 57.65 mph to an impressive 763.035 mph. So the question is, how much further can this record be pushed in the next 100 years? It seems that 1000 mph is only just around the corner!