When it comes to speed, most people don't even think about it until a police officer asks if they know how fast they were going. But world speed records are kept for just about everything that goes. Here are some records for the world's fastest vehicles on land and sea.

Tim Larsen/Associated Press The fastest roller coaster can reach a top speed of nearly 130 miles per hour.

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1. Land S­peed Record

The land speed record was set on October 15, 1997, by Andy Green, a British fighter pilot in the Royal Air Force. On Black Rock Desert, a dry lake bed in northwestern Nevada, Green's TurboSSC jet-propelled car reached a speed of 763.035 miles per hour, making him the first driver to reach supersonic speed (761 mph) and break the sound barrier.

Green broke his own record of 714.144 miles per hour, which was set on September 25, 1997. The TurboSSC is powered by two after-burning Rolls-Royce Spey engines -- the same engines used in the Phantom jet fighters Green flew for the RAF. The jet engines powering the TurboSSC burn 4.8 gallons of fuel per second and get about 0.04 miles per gallon.

2. Underwater Speed Records

Official underwater speed records -- usually achieved by military submarines -- are not kept due to the secrecy surrounding the capabilities of these warships. But in 1965, the USS Albacore, a Gato-class submarine, was clocked at 33 knots (38 mph), an unofficial underwater speed record. Claims of higher speeds have been made by submarine manufacturers but have not been officially measured.

Russia's Akula-class submarine allegedly can travel at 35 knots (approximately 40 miles per hour) submerged, while the Alfa-class submarine it replaced was said to reach 44.7 knots (approximately 51.4 miles per hour) for short periods.

3. Fastest Person on Two Wheels

The fastest person on two wheels is motorcycle racer Chris Carr. On September 5, 2006, at the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah -- the site of many land speed records -- Carr broke the motorcycle land speed record with an average speed of 350.8 miles per hour over two passes on a fixed-length course in two opposite-direction runs.

Of the two passes, Carr's fastest was 354 miles per hour. He was riding the Number Seven Streamliner, a specially designed bike with a turbocharged V4 engine.

4. World's Fastest Speedboat

The world's fastest speedboat was actually built in the backyard of the man who set the record. On October 8, 1978, at Blowering Dam, Australia, motorboat racer Ken Darby captained Spirit of Australia to a world-record average speed of 318.75 miles per hour, breaking his own record of 290.313 miles per hour set the previous year.

Darby designed and built Spirit of Australia himself, using balsa wood, fiberglass, and a military surplus engine he bought for only $69. This is a dangerous sport -- no other speedboat racer has clocked in at more than 300 miles per hour and survived.

On the next page you will find more land and water speed records, from the sailing speed record to the fastest steam-powered vehicle.

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