I Had Never Heard Of This Gentleman Before,

his name is Camille Jenatzy,

nicknamed Le Diable Rouge, (“The Red Devil”), after the colour of his beard, he was a Belgian race car driver, known for breaking the land speed record three times and being the first man to break the 100 km/h barrier in, wait for it, an electric car, the fastest man on earth!

and this is it, when asked to describe the feeling of traveling faster than physicians of the day believed the human body could endure, Jenatzy said: "The car in which you travel seems to leave the ground and hurl itself forward like a projectile ricocheting along the ground." he designed the car himself, called Le Jamais Contente (The Never Satisfied), in April 1899 Jenatzy reached the speed of 105.88 km/h (65.792 mph) a record which stood for three years, 

he was also a car racer, one commentator noting, “Throughout the seemingly endless series of curves, Jenatzy kept his foot to the floor. He skidded at breakneck speed around the corners, often only narrowly missing the bordering walls in the process, as was shown by his skid marks that were everywhere to be seen. I could not imagine that he could keep up this daredevil driving style for very long.” By the time the race was over the Gordon Bennett Cup was headed back to Germany, Jenatzy for his efforts was awarded $25,000 from Mercedes, a new car worth $17,000 and a further $8,000 from the tire manufacturer for a princely total of $50,000, which would be approximately equivalent to an inflated worth of $1,552,620.16 as of today, or if you are looking at a relative income worth of $7,455,896! if you have a few moments you can read the story of his life and bizarre death here.