Gaston de Chasseloup-Laubat sets first official land speed record
- When
- 1898
- Where
- Achères, Yvelines
- Episodes
- 1
Gaston de Chasseloup-Laubat established the first officially recognized land speed record on 18 December 1898 at Achères, France. Driving a Jeantaud electric automobile, he averaged 63.15 km/h over one kilometer. This achievement occurred during a competition organized by La France Automobile, marking a significant milestone in early automotive history.
Episodes
Background and detail
The Jeantaud Automobile. The record was set using a Jeantaud electric car. Jeantaud was a French automobile manufacturer based in Paris, active from 1893 to 1907. The company was founded by Charles Jeantaud, a coachbuilder who built his first electric carriage in 1881. The specific vehicle used by de Chasseloup-Laubat was the first car to achieve a land speed record.
The 1898 Competition. The record attempt took place at Achères, Yvelines, as part of a competition organized by the French automobile magazine La France Automobile. De Chasseloup-Laubat averaged 63.15 km/h over one kilometer. One month later, on 17 January 1899, he improved the record at Achères in the first of a series of record-setting duels with Camille Jenatzy.
People involved
- Gaston de Chasseloup-Laubat · Race car driver
- Camille Jenatzy · Record rival and duelist from January 1899 onward
Sources
- Gaston de Chasseloup-Laubat Wikipedia, revision of 2026-08-28
- Jeantaud Wikipedia, revision of 2026-08-10
Machine-drafted from the cited Wikipedia passages and checked by a reviewing model, not by a human editor. Every passage cites the revision it was written from; dates and places follow those passages.