The Record Collection

Car makers have been chasing superlatives since the dawn of automotive time. They would do anything to be the fastest, the best, the biggest, the newest.

Fastest was obvious, but fraught. But the infatuation with speed has slowed, to the point today when the Land Speed Record has stood for three decades, so manufacturers have had to get creative.

Speed was the very essence of motoring at one point, though, reaching a zenith in the 1920s and ’30s, and again in the 1960s. Then records stood for days or weeks or just until the very next run, not decades. 

First it was in Achères, France, that records were chased and head-to-head speed jousts made legends of the likes of ‘The Red Devil’ Camille Jenatzy. Then came Belgium, and the new long road at Jabbeke, and whipping around the bowl racetracks of England.

Later it was on the beaches of Pendine in Wales and the long hop across the Atlantic to Daytona, Florida, before the preference became the gritty, barren salt lakes of Utah’s salt pans.

Bonneville has since been immortalised by British motorcycle manufacturer Triumph, and remains a mecca for enthusiasts – car brands, too: ŠKODA UK took an Octavia and writer Dickie Meaden to 227.080mph during Bonneville Speed Week in 2011. The car was restored back to ‘salt spec’ in 2021 to mark 10 years of their Fastest 2.0-litre Forced Induction Production Car Record. 

ŠKODA UK, and Dickie, clearly were not satisfied because in 2023 they took an Enyaq vRS to Sweden to set the Longest Continuous Vehicle Drift on Ice – 4.568 miles in some
15 sideways minutes. The ‘Longest Continuous Vehicle Drift on Ice (electric vehicle)’ came as part of a package deal. 

In Vauxhall UK’s Lotus Carlton, the Bonneville Octavia will be joined by a kindred spirit because the Luton Lotus was the fastest four-door saloon in the world when it launched in 1990. Its 176mph was enough for the Daily Mail to want it banned. 

Other brands have thought further out of the box than even ŠKODA, such as Mazda and its record as the first to drive from Lands End to John O’Groats using only sustainable fuel. Its fleet of heritage and new MX-5s stopped at Bicester Motion to top up at Motor Spirit. Creating what would become the ‘world’s best-selling convertible’ in 1989 is a rather more open-and-shut case, while the Ford Model T was the first to break one million units. 

Some records were set simply by being. The late Irv Gordon recorded the most miles on one car by one owner. He commuted miles upon miles and spent his weekends on mammoth driving adventures across America, clocking up 3.2 million miles in his Volvo 1800S en route to every state. 

“I never had a goal to get to one million, to two million,” he told Volvo when he clock-watched past three million miles. “I just enjoyed driving and experiencing life through my Volvo.”

“It was all rather undramatic,” he added. ”We just cruised along and I kept an eye on the odometer in order not to miss the great moment.”

There are other avenues into record books and, like Irv, usually incidental. Ironically, it might actually put the car in front of more eyeballs than any first or fastest concoction would. 

After all, everybody knows John, Paul, George and Ringo crossed Abbey Road in front of a parked white Volkswagen Beetle, and that Bob Dylan and Suzi Rotolo were Freewheelin’ past a Volkswagen Type 2 van of a similar vintage.

The Carpenters sat in Richard Carpenter’s own 1972 Ferrari 365 ‘Daytona’ on the cover of Now & Then, and Mike Skinner leant on his own slammed Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow for The Streets’  2011 album The Hardest Way To Make An Easy Living. 

Some cars, like the Beatles Beetle that spent the rest of the 1960s having its numberplate pinched, are untraceable: the Silver Shadow Oasis dipped into a swimming pool for Be Here Now is lost to banger racing. 

Others, like Dylan’s VW, didn’t even know they were famous: Frank Ocean used an image he found online of an orange BMW E30 M3 on his landmark mixtape Nostalgia, Ultra.

But one thing is certain when it comes to records: it’s all in the spin.

Find the display by Building 123 at the Scramble on Sunday 27 April. Tickets for the event sold out within a week.