The fastest speed ever reached by a vehicle powered through its wheels is 737.794 km/h (458.444 mi/h), by the turbine-powered Vesco Turbinator, driven by Don Vesco (USA) at Bonneville Salt Flats, Utah, USA, on 18 October 2001. Wheel-driven refers to the fact that the power of the engine is directed to the car’s wheels, which then power it forwards. Thrust SSC, the car that set the absolute land speed record, was jet-powered, meaning that it was the thrust of the jets that powered it forward
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The fastest try in a rugby union Super Rugby match is 12 seconds and was achieved by Vula Maimuri (Fiji) for the Highlanders against the Crusaders (both New Zealand) at Christchurch, New Zealand, on 12 May 2001.
The fastest trek to the North Pole was 41 days 18 hours and 52 minutes and was achieved by David J.P. Pierce Jones (UK), Richard Weber (Canada), Tessum Weber (Canada) and Howard Fairbanks (South Africa) from 3 March to 14 April 2010. The team set out on 3 April from 82° 58′ 02″ N and 77° 23′ 3″ W and were picked up after reaching the North Pole, 90° N, on 14 April 2010. The total trek distance was 785 km (487.78 mi). They had
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Grace Pak (USA) typed a prescribed 264-character text on a QWERTY mobile phone in 56.57 sec at Abington Junior High School in Willow Grove, Pennsylvania, USA, on 8 June 2011. The text was: The telephone was invented by Alexander Graham Bell (UK), who filed his patent for the telephone on 14 February 1876 at the New York Patent Office, USA. The first intelligible call occurred in March 1876 in Boston, Massachusetts, when Bell phoned his assistant in a nearby room and said ‘Come here Watson,
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The fastest century in Twenty20 cricket was made off 34 balls by Andrew Symonds (b. 9 June 1975, Australia), playing for Kent against Middlesex at Maidstone, Kent, UK, on 2 July 2004.
The fastest production of an animated TV show from script to screen was six hours achieved by KliK Animation of Montreal, Canada, which produced and aired a topical one-minute animation entitled Le JourNul de François Pérusse, on the same day. It premiered on 8 February 1999 after the 6pm news on TVA, Canadian national television.
A total of 1.3 million tickets were sold for Take That’s (UK) 25-date UK and Ireland tour in one day, 29 October 2010. It was their first tour to feature Robbie Williams since he left the group in 1995.
The fastest typing on a smartphone in Spanish is 50.03 sec and was achieved by Jorge Guevara (Argentina) during the LG Mobile World Cup Argentina, at Luna Park, Buenos Aires, Argentina, on 1 Dec 2010. Jorge was 1 of 8 competitors in the final of the LG Mobile World Cup Argentina, the nearest competitor was Romina Luna aged 14 who managed 1 min 02.72 sec.
The world record time for the 1 km cycle (unpaced, from standing start) is 58.875 seconds by Arnaud Tournant (France) at La Paz, Bolivia on 10 October 2001.
The fastest solo unsupported ascent-descent of Mount Kilimanjaro was completed in a time of 9:21.47, by Simon Mtuy (Tanzania) on 22 Feb 2006. Mtuy started at the Umbwe entrance gate to Kilimanjaro National Park at 1,661 meters, ran up the Umbwe Route to Uhuru Peak at 5,895 meters and descended via the Mweka Route to the Mweka Gate.