Fastest tracked vehicle

What to remember

In the summer of 1979, in July or August, Carl May drove a modified M113 to 121.9 km/h, or 75.7 mph. The US Army certified the run, the highest speed ever reached by a tracked vehicle.

The M113 was never built for racing. It is a fully tracked armored personnel carrier, developed and produced by the FMC Corporation and sent to United States Army Europe in 1961 to replace the M59. It was also the first aluminium-hulled combat vehicle to be put into mass production.

Among speed records, tracked vehicles form a category of their own. The criteria for a record, the authority certifying it and the speed actually reached can be disputed; in this case, the US Army validated the figure.