🚗 Land Speed Records Trivia Questions & Answers
Below are 30 free land speed records trivia questions with answers — part of Cars trivia on BUZZ. Want a real challenge that adapts to what you know? Play the Cars quiz — no signup needed to start.
30 Land Speed Records trivia questions
Q1. What name did land speed racer Craig Breedlove give his series of record-chasing jet cars?
Answer: Spirit of America
💡 Breedlove built several Spirit of America cars between 1962 and 1965 chasing ever-higher records.
Q2. Which driver piloted the rocket-powered Blue Flame to a new land speed record in 1970?
Answer: Gary Gabelich
💡 Blue Flame's Bonneville run of over 630 mph stood as the record for the next 13 years.
Q3. In 1997, which jet-powered car became the first land vehicle to officially break the sound barrier?
Answer: Thrust SSC
💡 Driver Andy Green hit 763 mph in Nevada's Black Rock Desert, on the very anniversary weekend of Chuck Yeager's 1947 sound-barrier flight.
Q4. Which US salt flat became the classic proving ground for land speed records all last century?
Answer: Bonneville Salt Flats
💡 The flats are the remains of an ancient lake, and the salt crust re-hardens each summer into a natural speedway.
Q5. Richard Noble's jet car Thrust2 set a 633 mph land speed record in 1983 at which US desert?
Answer: Black Rock Desert
💡 Thrust2 held the record for almost 13 years, until Noble came back as project director for ThrustSSC in 1997.
Q6. An official land speed record must average two runs made within what time window?
Answer: One hour
💡 The two passes run in opposite directions, cancelling out any help from wind or a downhill slope.
Q7. Which British king personally knighted land speed racer Malcolm Campbell in 1931?
Answer: King George V
💡 Campbell was honored right after setting a fresh land speed record at Daytona Beach.
Q8. Which hot-rodders' association launched Bonneville's official Speed Week meet in 1949?
Answer: The Southern California Timing Association (SCTA)
💡 Hot Rod magazine's founders helped push to open the salt flats to everyday racers that year.
Q9. In Bonneville's lakester racing class, what part of the car must stay completely uncovered?
Answer: The wheels
💡 The class was inspired by WWII aircraft drop-tank racers built by hot-rodder Bill Burke.
Q10. Internationally, official land speed records are logged in which speed unit?
Answer: Kilometers per hour
💡 American outlets usually quote the mph conversion, but the FIA's own paperwork uses km/h.
Q11. What name did both Malcolm Campbell and later his son Donald share for their speed-record cars?
Answer: Bluebird
💡 The Campbell family used the Bluebird name across generations of both land and water speed record machines.
Q12. ThrustSSC's twin jet engines began life powering which 1960s fighter aircraft?
Answer: F-4 Phantom II
💡 Its two Rolls-Royce Spey turbofans produced over 50,000 lbf of combined thrust at record speed.
Q13. Bloodhound LSR ran its 2019 high-speed tests on a dry lake bed in which country?
Answer: South Africa
💡 The car hit 628 mph at Hakskeen Pan, becoming only the eighth vehicle ever to top 600 mph.
Q14. What term names the pre-measured stretch of road a land speed record run is timed over?
Answer: The flying mile (or flying kilometer)
💡 Cars enter the flying mile already at full speed — the clock never sees a standing start.
Q15. Craig Breedlove became the first driver in history to break which two speed barriers?
Answer: 500 mph and 600 mph
💡 He topped 600 mph on Nov. 15, 1965, at Bonneville, a record that stood for years.
Q16. Between 1924 and 1935, how many times did Malcolm Campbell break the land speed record?
Answer: Nine times
💡 Three of those records were set at Pendine Sands in Wales, the rest on American beaches and salt flats.
Q17. George Eyston's car Thunderbolt set land speed records in which two consecutive years?
Answer: 1937 and 1938
💡 Eyston's Thunderbolt and rival John Cobb's Railton traded the record back and forth at Bonneville.
Q18. Rocky Robinson's Ack Attack set the outright motorcycle land speed record in what year?
Answer: 2010
💡 His two-way average of 376 mph has stood as the record for well over a decade.
Q19. Stuntwoman Kitty O'Neil's 1976 women's land speed record run took place in which US desert?
Answer: Alvord Desert, OR
💡 Her rocket-powered SMI Motivator averaged over 512 mph, though her contract capped her official mark below 400 mph.
Q20. The JCB Dieselmax, driven by Andy Green in 2006, set a land speed record for which fuel type?
Answer: Diesel
💡 It reached just over 350 mph at Bonneville, nearly 100 mph faster than the previous diesel mark.
Q21. To count as an official record, a new land speed mark must beat the old one by what margin?
Answer: One percent
💡 The rule stops the record books from being rewritten by fractions-of-a-second improvements.
Q22. Donald Campbell remains the only person to have done what in the very same year, 1964?
Answer: Set both a land and a water speed record
💡 He capped the year with a water speed record of 276.33 mph on the last day of December 1964.
Q23. In 1899, which Belgian driver first topped 100 km/h on land, in an electric torpedo-shaped car?
Answer: Camille Jenatzy
💡 His car, nicknamed 'La Jamais Contente,' reached about 65.8 mph — remarkable for a battery-powered vehicle at the dawn of motoring.
Q24. Why did one racing body refuse to recognize Craig Breedlove's 400 mph 1963 land speed record?
Answer: It only had three wheels
💡 The motorcycling federation accepted the run instead, and the two bodies then created a whole new category just for jet and rocket cars.
Q25. Blue Flame's rocket engine burned liquefied natural gas together with which oxidizer?
Answer: Hydrogen peroxide
💡 The hybrid rocket produced roughly 58,000 horsepower during its brief 20-second burn.
Q26. John Cobb's 1947 record stood as the last one set by what type of car for nearly 20 years?
Answer: A piston-engined car
💡 Cobb's Railton hit 394 mph in 1947 — no piston car beat that wheel-driven mark until 1965.
Q27. Ohio State's all-electric Buckeye Bullet 3 set an EV land speed record in which year?
Answer: 2016
💡 Student engineers drove it to 341 mph at Bonneville, using batteries built by A123 Systems.
Q28. Which jet-powered car was Jessi Combs driving during her final 2019 record run?
Answer: North American Eagle
💡 Investigators traced the accident to a front wheel assembly failure near 523 mph.
Q29. In 1906, who set a 127 mph land speed record on Florida sand in the steam-powered Stanley Rocket?
Answer: Fred Marriott
💡 A year later, Marriott tried to beat his own record, hit a rut at speed, and was thrown clear as the Rocket broke apart in mid-air — he survived, though he lost an eye.
Q30. What category of land speed record excludes every jet- and rocket-powered car entirely?
Answer: The wheel-driven record
💡 Jet-powered ThrustSSC holds the outright record, but it could never qualify for the wheel-driven one.
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