World's fastest rod

Donald Campbell's sleek, streamlined Bluebird - the fastest thing on land in 1964 - was such a good-looking machine that a Hot Rod magazine celebrated it on the cover as the 'world's fastest hot rod'.

Story: James Cockington

In 1964, after months of frustrating delays, Donald Campbell finally set a new world record speed of 403.01 mph in the Proteus jet-powered Bluebird on Lake Eyre, a remote dry salt lake in northern South Australia. What made this event so significant was that this was the last land speed world record car to direct its power through the wheels.

Plus, the Bluebird was sexy enough to feature on the cover of Hot Rod magazine with the question, “is this the world’s fastest rod?” Well, yes it was, and after Campbell had secured the record he celebrated by driving his car (slowly) down the main street of Adelaide.

The next generation of land speed cars (Wingfoot Express, Art Arfons’ Green Monster and Craig Breedlove’s Spirit of America) were literally rockets on wheels. By 1965, Breedlove in his Sonic 1 had already upped the record to 600 mph.