Land Speed Records

An ex-Isle of Man TT Zero bike has set a new land speed record and become the "fastest electric unfaired motorbike in the world" – subject to ratification by the FIM. The record speed, a two-way average over a flying kilometer, was 185.103 mph (297.894 km/h), with a best one-way speed of 194.086 mph (312.351 km/h).

Time for a quick update on Shea Nyquist's quest to break the land speed record in a fully electric streamliner. The bike is up and running, albeit without any fairing panels on it yet, and Nyquist has been doing some "kind of illegal" but successful testing on quiet backroads near his home.

The Bloodhound supersonic car project has bounced back from the brink of bankruptcy to set its sights on the land speed record once again. The vehicle will hit the track in October for the first time since its relaunch, with plans to carry out high-speed testing in a South African desert.

Ex-BMX freestyler and custom motorcycle builder Shea Nyquist is putting together a home-made electric streamliner motorcycle to take a shot at the land speed record books. It takes a highly skilled, doggedly determined and slightly nutty person to succeed on the salt, and Shea might be that guy.

Honda makes superbikes. Honda also makes lawn mowers. The Mean Mower was thus inevitable. A hyper-mower if you will, with more than 190 hp at the wheel thanks to a screaming Fireblade engine, the Mean Mower V2 has been unveiled with a theoretical top speed over 150 mph.

French motorcycle company Voxan is hitting the salt flats next year to take a stab at an electric motorcycle land speed record. With Max Biaggi confirmed as the rider, the Voxan team is aiming for a two-way speed over 330 km/h (205 mph) with a streamlined version of its Wattman electric cruiser.

After being salvaged from the scrapheap of highly promising but highly ambitious vehicular endeavors, the record-seeking Bloodhound Supersonic Car has been moved into a new research center with efforts to bring it up to speed now continuing apace.

As you might expect, development of the Bloodhound supersonic car has proven costly and just last week it was announced that lack of funds had ended the project for good. But that was last week. Now a new backer has been found and the world land speed record attempt is on again.​

Since its founding in 2007, the company behind the Bloodhound Supersonic Car has made no secret of its plans to smash the world land speed record and cross the 1,000-mph (1,600-km/h) threshold. Today those plans have hit a significant speed bump, with the team revealing it has run out of cash.

Sean Mills, of Big CC Racing in Berkshire, UK, has a serious claim to the world's fastest street-legal motorcycle after rider Phil Hall used his variable boost, stroked-out turbo 'Busa to hit 271 mph (436 kmh) at the recent Straightliners event at Elvington Airstrip.

​Earlier today we reported that Neil "Soupy" Campbell secured a new European bicycle speed record of 149 mph (240 km/h). On Sunday, 45 year-old mother of three Denise Mueller-Korenek took to Bonneville Salt Flats and recorded a speed on 183.932 mph (296 km/h) to set the overall speed record.​

If you need any further convincing on the impact of wind drag on vehicle efficiency, try this for size: a British fellow just hopped on a pushbike and went 149 mph while slipstreaming a Porsche. Neil "Soupy" Campbell now holds the European bicycle speed record, but not the world one – yet.