The First Land Speed RecordSource: Photo Courtesy of Thrust SCC Programme LTD.(9/15/2005)
On December 18th, 1898 Count Gaston de Chasseloup-Laubat (the "Electric Count") set the world's first official land-speed record near Paris. The new record was set in his electric Jeantaud automobile at a hair-raising speed of 39.245mph (62.8 kph). The car employed a single electric motor and alkaline batteries. Many historians regard the Jeantaud to be the first automobile to be steered by a modern steering wheel instead of a tiller.
Whatever the case, the Jeantaud remains and will always be the first automobile to set an official land speed record.
Unfortunately for our "Electric Count," the record would last just a few days before it would fall to a faster electric vehicle.
