The passion for speed has driven generations of brave and ingenious men since the inception of the automobile speed record on 18 December 1998. During a century of unprecedented technical developments, men have used steam and electric power, the internal combustion engine, jets and rockets to race for the record. Supersonic speeds have now been reached that would have been beyond the wildest imaginings of the pioneering record-breakers 100 years ago. In this book, Peter Holthusen recalls the challenges, dangers, disappointments, tragedies and triumphs that have characterized record-breaking attempts from the very beginning. The book goes back to the earliest days of automobile racing when Frenchman Camille Jenatzy and Leon Serpollet set the initial records and were then overtaken by intrepid sportsmen like William K. Vanderbilt Jr, the Honorable Charles Rolls, Henry Ford, Barney Oldfield and Louis Chevrolet. Then came the glorious and perilous era of the speed kings of the 1920s and 1930s - Sir Malcolm Campbell, Captain George Eyston, Major Henry Seagrave and John Cobb. Holthusen reconsiders the famous careers of these men, who were among the great sporting legends of their time, and he relives the more recent rivalries of a later generation - personalities like Craig Breedlove, Art Afons, Gary Gabelich, Stan Barrett and Richard Noble, who compete against each other in monstrous, thrust-powered cars. He asks why these exceptional individuals are prepared to risk their lives - and their fortunes - in order to become the fastest man on earth. The book also celebrates the tremendous machines they have conceived and built - the Bluebird, the Golden Arrow, Thunderbolt, The Green Monster, Spirit of America, The Blue Flame, Thrust 2 and Thrust SSC. These awesome creations were always the ultimate expression of the automobile expertise of their time, and the modern record cars represent the best combination of an increasingly complex mixture of technologies borrowed from racing-car and aircraft design, aerodynamics and rocketry. In particular Holthusen seeks to account for the extraordinary success of Thrust SSC, the most potent car ever built, which was the first land vehicle to officially break the sound barrier.