We missed the anniversary by a couple of days, but 83 years ago Henry Seagrave drove a monsterous, purpose built, 1,000hp car built by Sunbeam in England to a speed of 203 mph. This was the first car to breach 200 mph and it was ironically called, “The Slug” due to its shape. Power? Yeah, that came from two 22.4 liter airplane engines!

In 1927 a car that could go 200 mph was basically unfathomable. Modern road going cars at the time struggled to make a quarter of that speed for long stretches. The multi-ton Sunbeam stretched the definition of what an automobile actually was in the late 1920s and used technology theretofore uneen. It used specialty built tires to handle the massive speed and weight of the car as well as the aerodynamic body which was ahead of its time.

Wired.com remembered the day and put together a neat read on Seagrave and the behometh of a car he ran at Daytona Beach to the historic record.

Source — Wired.com — Fastest Slug in the World