the quest to go really, really, really fast…

How do you know that you’re truly obsessed with speed? Did you spend $28,000 to buy an old military jet with an engine capable of accelerating a fighter to supersonic speeds then work over the years to turn it into what could best be described as a land missile on four wheels? If you’ve answered yes to both questions, you have a burning need for speed and you’re ready to invest countless hours of sweat, blood, tears and very, very large sums of cash into an obscure pursuit in which your only returns are a record and a feeling of pure euphoria.

A recent feature over at Popular Mechanics takes a deeper look at ongoing attempts to beat the official land speed record set in 1997 at a blistering 763 mph. The fastest production car in the world today, the famously excessive 1,001 hp, 16 cylinder Bugatti Veyron, can hit just over 253 mph on the test track. But then again, the Veyron is a car rather than a jet engine on wheels capable of screaming across a dry lake bed at supersonic speeds. And believe it or not, the holder of the current land speed record and a team of volunteers want to set the new benchmark at 1,000 mph. Considering that there is actually no real sport in setting a world record and few sponsors ready to commit the necessary millions of dollars to the endeavors, all their hard work is just for the sake of leaving their mark in the history books and little else.

I know some of you might be wondering why anyone would try to build these land missiles and thinking of all the places where this talent and energy would be “better spent.” My humble suggestion? Don’t. Spin-offs from engineering projects that push the limits of what we can do will almost always have practical applications for our everyday lives, even if we’ll never see them firsthand. Trying to clamp down on exploration just because it doesn’t seem useful to you at the moment is to limit the kind of serendipity and excited brainstorming that can churn out new inventions and drastic improvements to existing hardware. Besides, what’s the harm in trying to set a record? Everybody has some fun, our technology edges a little over its current limits and we might get a new piece of technology or two out of the deal. As far as I see it, everybody wins…