Barney Oldfield's 1910 Land Speed Record

Ormond/Daytona Beach – 1910

Fourteen files document Barney Oldfield’s world land speed record run in March 1910. Oldfield acquired the famous “Blitzen Benz,” renamed it the “Lightning Benz” and drove it to 131.7 MPH to set the new record. At the time, the speed was the fastest any person had traveled in any kind of vehicle – car, train or airplane.


This article package includes items from Literary Digest and Popular Mechanics. The most important of which is the Literary Digest item titled "The Fastest Thing on Wheels." Barney Oldfield's land speed record runs at Daytona Beach underscored a milestone in automotive engineering - when the car became the fastest vehicle on Earth. From the nineteenth century through the first decade of the twentieth century the railroad locomotive held that distinction.

This is a nice piece from an unnamed newspaper that was clipped and pasted in Barney Oldfield's personal scrapbook. It describes the atmosphere in Daytona Beach after Oldfield's startling 131.720 mph record for the measured mile. Charming descriptions of Barney tooling around the little town of Daytona on his bicycle and mingling with people in the area are examples of the feel you'll get for the context of this piece of history.

This package is a selection of tables covering the key speed records as they existed in 1910. Oldfield's 131.7 world land speed record triggered tremendous interest in these milestones in 1910.

As a follow-up to Oldfield's Ormond Beach land speed record in March, he toured the country showcasing his impressive "Lightning Benz," aka "Blitzen Benz." This brief article highlights a promotion around his upcoming appearance at a track in Parkersburg, West Virginia. The article was published in the Indianapolis News on July 16, 1910.

There is a very brief article in attachment OldfieldBenz012610  about Barney Oldfield's purchase of the famous "Blitzen Benz" was published in the January 26, 1910, Indianapolis Star.