Ashley - Fast driving is a dream had by many that usually starts during childhood and carries on throughout their adult lives. The vision, often starts with a long desolate road, the sun shining, a fast car, and one foot pressing down on the gas pedal or as some like to refer to it as, putting “Pedal to the metal”.
Modern cars offer consumers the ability to drive at high speeds, which is regularly used for long distant driving, like on Freeways. However, it hasn’t always been this way, especially in the beginning of car manufacturing. Older cars provided the ability to move from A to B, but at first, it didn’t happen very fast.
In fact, the first automobile would only reach the top speed of ten miles per hour. Mind you, this was in 1886 and certainly a huge step in transportation history, but it is hard to imagine sitting in a car that drove that slow.
As the years went by, history was constantly being made through the evolution of the automobile and one such milestone was the occurrence of the first person who drove 100 miles in one hour.
On February 15th 1913, history in the world of transportation was made. The record was set in Brooklands Weybridge, Surrey, England by Percy Edgar Lambert who became the first person to cover a hundred miles in one hour.
Lambert actually covered 103 miles and 1470 yards in sixty minutes. He enjoyed racing and driving different automobiles, but this monumental record was set while he was driving his 4.5 litre side valve Talbot.
There is a film, which was made on this glorious day, that can be watched at the Brooklands Museum in England.
This new record caused much publicity because not only did Lambert set a speed record he did it in a vehicle with a 4.5 litre engine, whereas, other attempts prior, where made in monster racing cars with 9.1 and 15 litre engines.
These cars came close to making the record, but it was Percy and his Talbot who landed it.
