Gas giant – Part one

The Land Speed Record is in a sorry state. Bloodhound LSR is mothballed in a museum, other contenders have fallen by the wayside and with everyone after insta-kicks (or alternatively Insta-clicks) it looks like the world has moved on and that no one cares about high-speed record breaking anymore.

Only that’s not true, is it? Look at the credulous excitement that builds around every new ultra-fast hypercar and the battle to break the 300mph and 500km/h barriers. Weird, you might think, the disconnect between the hype-fuelled 300mph road cars that dominate social feeds, and the stuttering progress that defines anyone trying to break actual land speed barriers.

What is it that separates these two pursuits of speed? Specialisation. It’s got to be, hasn’t it? Hypercars don’t live for speed alone. They exist to be luxurious, make their owners feel good and hopefully not lose them any money. Their dizzying numbers are just that: numbers. Nice to boast about, but does anyone actually want to attempt 300mph? No. For that sort of stuff you send for Andy Wallace.