Cars
Speed or travel time?
The article explores the history of mankind's desire for speed and the pursuit of setting records that shorten distances. It discusses how the invention of powerful internal combustion engines and the industrial revolution changed the way people travel.
One hundred years before Christ, the Germanic tribes of the Cimbri slid down the snow-capped Alps by using their shields as sleds to attack the Roman army. We can’t say for certain that they broke any records, but for sure this was a very brisk way of shortening distances and saving energy. Today, the world speed skiing record is held by the Italian Ivan Origone at 254.958 kilometres per hour.
Everything has changed yet nothing has really changed: these records should not be judged by the speed achieved but by the time in which a certain distance is covered. Ettore Bugatti’s train, which travelled at 196 km/h in 1935 thanks to the powerful internal combustion engines designed for the Royale, was met with wonderment because it connected Paris to Lyon in just 4 hours and 50 minutes. The same goes for modern fast trains where the Japanese have long prevailed with their perfect and punctual Shinkansen. Today, fast trains are not taken for the speed they travel at but because on an increasing number of routes, they guarantee the journey will take the same time as travelling by plane and in greater comfort.
