Gallery: Land Speed Record holders

The legendarry Bluebird was piloted by Malcolm Campbell in the 1920s – he took the title of the world's fastest man in 1924 and 1925. Fitted with a 18.3-litre V12 engine, Bluebird was the first car to travel over 150mph.

Powered by a 27-litre Liberty aero engine, Babs, and her pilot Parry Thomas, met an untimely end at Pendine Sands in 1927. After the crash, Babs was buried at Pendine, but then excavated 40 years later and given a full restoration.

The first car to use the combination of the modern three-wheeled design, a narrow stream-lined design and more significantly a turbojet engine. The Spirit of America, driven by Craig Breedlove, set a record speed of 408.312mph on Sept 5th 1963.

The radical styling of the Sixties produced the batmobile-like Green Monster, built and driven by hot rod enthusiast Art Arfons. It took the world record three times when it hit 434mph, 536mph and 576mph in 1964 and 1965.

Using a combination of hydrogen peroxide and liquified natural gas, the jet-powered Blue Flame was the first car to travel faster than 1,000km/h (630.4mph). The American built car held the record for 13 years between 1970 and 1983.

Powered by a Rolls Royce Avon jet engine, Thrust 2 helped Richard Noble to average 633.468mph on October 4th 1983 at the Black Rock desert in Nevada. He managed a one-way peak of 650.88mph.

Thrust SSC set the current world land speed record in 1997. Powered by two Rolls Royce Spey turbofan engines from the Phantom jet, RAF pilot Andy Green managed to reach 763.035mph.

Still in the development stages, the Bloodhound SCC will make and break the landspeed record three times. The team are planning to hit 800mph in 2009 and 900mph in 2010 with the final attempt, scheduled for 2011, topping 1,000mph.