Tuesday 4th October 1983

After nearly 20 years of domination by Americans, Briton Richard Noble raced to a new one-mile land-speed record in his jet-powered Thrust 2 vehicle. The Thrust 2, a 17,000-pound jet-powered Rolls-Royce Avon 302 designed by John Ackroyd, reached a record 633.468 mph over the one-mile course in Nevada’s stark Black Rock Desert, breaking the 631.367 mph speed record achieved by Gary Gabelich’s Blue Flame in 1970. Previous to Gary Gabelich there was Craig Breedlove, the American driver who recorded a series of astounding victories in jet-powered vehicles during the 1960s, breaking the 400 mph, 500 mph, and 600 mph barriers in 1963, 1964, and 1965, respectively.