FIA land speed records are officiated and validated by regional or national affiliate organisations. Speed is measured over a course of either one kilometre or one mile, averaged across two runs with a flying start made in opposite directions within one hour. A new record must exceed the previous mark by at least one percent to be validated. The two-pass, two-direction requirement was designed to negate the effect of wind, and the one-percent increment rule ensures that marginal gains do not generate unnecessary record claims.
Until 1829 the fastest land transport was by horse; railway locomotives then set successive speed benchmarks. The first automobile record regulator was the Automobile Club de France, which proclaimed itself arbiter of the record around 1902. Different clubs applied different standards and did not consistently recognise the same records until 1924, when the Association Internationale des Automobile Clubs Reconnus (AIACR) introduced standardised regulations: two opposite-direction passes within 30 minutes, average gradient not more than one percent, timing gear accurate to 0.01 seconds, and cars must be wheel-driven. The AIACR became the FIA in 1947.
A major controversy arose in 1963. Craig Breedlove's Spirit of America set a speed of 407.447 mph (655.722 km/h) in September 1963, but the FIA refused to ratify it because the vehicle had three wheels and was not wheel-driven — its jet engine did not supply power to its axles. The FIM later created a non-wheel-driven category and ratified Spirit of America's time as a three-wheel motorcycle record. Meanwhile, on 17 July 1964, Donald Campbell's Bluebird CN7 posted 403.10 mph (648.73 km/h) on Lake Eyre, Australia, which became the official FIA LSR — though Campbell was disappointed not to have surpassed Breedlove's time. In October 1964, several four-wheel jet cars exceeded the 1963 mark but were eligible for neither FIA nor FIM ratification. The confusion of three simultaneous competing LSRs ended on 11 December 1964, when the FIA and FIM met in Paris and agreed to recognise as the absolute LSR the higher speed recorded by either body, by any wheeled vehicle, whether wheel-driven or not. This agreement opened the way for jet and rocket cars to compete for the absolute record without restriction.
The FIA does not recognise separate men's and women's land speed records, on the grounds that the driver's gender is irrelevant in motorised competition; however, Guinness World Records does recognise gender-specific marks.
The women's record history stretches back to 1906, when Dorothy Levitt drove a six-cylinder Napier motorcar to 154 km/h (96 mph) in a speed trial at Blackpool, England, earning the press sobriquet "Fastest Girl on Earth." In 1963, Paula Murphy drove a Studebaker Avanti to 262 km/h (163 mph) at the Bonneville Salt Flats; the following year Goodyear sponsored her to set 364.31 km/h (226.37 mph) in Walt Arfons's jet dragster Avenger. Rival tyre company Firestone responded when Betty Skelton drove Art Arfons's Cyclops to 446.63 km/h (277.52 mph) in September 1965. Five weeks later, Lee Breedlove — wife of overall record holder Craig Breedlove — piloted Spirit of America – Sonic I to 496.492 km/h (308.506 mph).
In 1976, Kitty O'Neil set the women's absolute record in the jet-powered, three-wheeled SMI Motivator at the Alvord Desert, reaching 825.127 km/h (512.710 mph) using only around 60 percent of the car's available power due to sponsorship restrictions. On 9 October 2013, Jessi Combs raised the women's four-wheel class record to 632.40 km/h (392.954 mph) at the Alvord Desert in the North American Eagle Project vehicle. Combs was killed on 27 August 2019 during a subsequent attempt to improve that mark; in late June 2020, Guinness World Records reclassified those August 2019 runs as valid and posthumously credited Combs with a four-wheel record of 841.338 km/h (522.783 mph).
The modern absolute LSR is held by a jet or rocket-powered vehicle run on a measured salt-flat or dry-lakebed course. Ongoing attempts by projects such as Bloodhound LSR — which has targeted speeds above 1,050 mph (1,690 km/h) — illustrate the continued human fascination with the outer boundary of wheeled speed. The record remains one of the most extreme proving grounds for aerospace-derived propulsion technology applied to a land vehicle.