Whoever said you need a car or an aircraft to achieve big speed?
10.) Soviet K-222
The Fastest Submarine
Top Speed (MPH/KN): 51.4/44.7
These things were called Papa-class subs for a reason. I’ll let reader Snuze: The New Slobalt explain:
“She was a one-of-a-kind, the only ship in her class. She featured a titanium hull and twin 177 megawatt VM-5m pressurized water reactors coupled to two 80,000 horsepower steam turbines. This combination of low mass and high horsepower could carry her compliment of 82 sailors, 10 SS-N-7 ‘Starbright’ anti-ship missiles, and 12 533mm torpedoes to a top speed of 44.7 knots (51.4 mph).”
Suggested By: Snuze: The New Slobalt , Photo Credit: Public Domain
9.) HCMS Bras D’Or 400
The Fastest Warship
Top Speed (MPH/KN): 72/63
This experimental Canadian Hydrofoil holds the claim for the fastest warship ever made. It was based on ideas from Alexander Graham Bell and was powered by two Pratt & Whitney turbine engines.
Sadly, the experiment was cancelled in 1971 and the sole ship was put on display at the Musée Maritime Du Québec.
Suggested By: Bonhomme7h , Photo Credit: Dennis Jarvis
8.) Vestas Sailrocket 2
The Fastest Sail Boat
Top Speed (MPH/KN): 75/65.45
75 MPH doesn’t seem like a lot, but for something that lacks an engine, and isn’t being dropped out of a plane, it’s damn impressive.
The Sailrocket 2 didn’t just break the sailing record, it obliterated it.
Suggested By: As Du Volant , Photo Credit: Sailrocket
7.) The World Is Not Enough
The Fastest Yacht
Top Speed (MPH/KN): 80/69.5
I’m not sure what the point of a Yacht capable of racing along at 70 knots is, other than for winning pissing contests, but I’m glad it exists.
It’s the Bentley Mulsanne Speed of the Maritime world.
Suggested By: sm70- why not Duesenberg? , Photo Credit: greenkoi via YouTube
6.) Cigarette AMG Electric Drive Concept
The Fastest Electric Boat
Top Speed (MPH/KN): 100/87
Our favorite loons at Mercedes-AMG collaborate with Cigarette Racing to celebrate milestone cars, and they’re coolest matchup yet produced the fastest electric boat in the world , inspired by the SLS Electric drive.
It uses 12 electric motors to produce 2,220 HP, and is green enough to make environmentalists very happy.
Suggested By: Stig-a-saw-us-wrecks , Photo Credit: Cigarette
5.) Brad Rowland’s South Bay 925CR
The Fastest Pontoon Boat
Top Speed (MPH/KN): 114/99
Everything about this is ridiculous and amazing: the video, the music, the fact that someone made a Pontoon Boat that can hit 114 MPH.
Suggested By: PatBateman
4.) Spirit Of Qatar
The Fastest Catamaran
Top Speed (MPH/KN): 244/212
This is the point in the list where boats start to achieve completely unfathomable speeds. Just watch the video above: it’s like hyperdrive, except on water.
It uses twin Lycoming Turbines to make a total of 9,000 HP, allowing this catamaran to reach ludicrous speed.
Suggested By: BrtStlnd
3.) Problem Child
The Fastest Top Fuel Hydroplane
Top Speed (MPH/KN): 262/228
Top Fuel Hydroplanes are just like Top Fuel dragsters, except they race on water. The hit similar speeds to their road-going counterparts, which is just absurd.
Eddie Knox’s Problem Child is the fastest of it’s kind, and like a dragster, it’s powered by an 8,000 hp Hemi V8.
Suggested By: toomuchcommuting
2.) Bluebird K7
The Fastest Hydroplane
Top Speed (MPH/KN): 276/239.8
The K7 was the first of the crazy fast turbine hydroplanes, setting and resetting the Water speed record seven times between 1955-1964, its last run clocking in at a shocking 276 MPH.
Sadly, its pilot Donald Campbell was killed in 1967 attempting to hit 300 MPH in the K7, but his legend lives on thanks to the fact that he was the only person to hold land and water speed records at the same time.
Suggested By: Arch Duke Maxyenko, ಠ_ಠ , Photo Credit: Neil Sheppard
1.) Spirit Of Australia
The Fastest Speedboat
Top Speed (MPH/KN): 317.6/276.3
317.6 MPH. An astonishing figure, which is made all the more impressive when you learn that the Spirit of Australia was built by a dude in his backyard.
Ken Warby designed, built, and got his boat up to 317.6 MPH in 1978 and it still stands as the water speed record today.
Suggested By: For Sweeden , Photo Credit: Ken Warby via Freep
Welcome back to Answers of the Day - our daily Jalopnik feature where we take the best ten responses from the previous day’s Question of the Day and shine it up to show off. It’s by you and for you, the Jalopnik readers. Enjoy!
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