I am member of some speed clubs, all of them measure
the speed in letters per minute in PARIS mode.
100 LPM is equivalent to 20 words per minute.

HSC High Speed Club >125 letters per minute
VHSC Very high speed club >200 LPM
Super high speed Club >250 LPM
Extremly high speed Club >300 LPM (60 wpm)

You need up to 5 sponsors who confirm that you are able
to hold the minimum speed - which each of these clubs
require - in qsos of at least 30 minutes. The sponsors themselves
have to be member of the "desired" speed club, of course.

When I became member of all of these clubs, I was about
26 yrs young and did more or less nothing else then
excercising extreme speed cw. Oh, I forgot to mention
that the use of computers was forbidden - for listening
as well as for keying. Electronic keyers were ok :-)
I used a wonderful very heavy self made sensoric keyer with an
ETM-1C electronic which was changed to enable it for 70
and more wpm (> 350 LPM).

These days, I was permanently able to copy 350 LPM
which would be 70 wpm PARIS norm. A few of my buddies
these days were better = faster. The best cw Operator I ever
heard (a good friend of mine) is DF4KV. He performs like a
machine... with an old Vibrokeyer, fluently in german and
english. He invented the PACTOR System, together with
DL6MAA, another absolutely outstanding cw enthusiast.
They never met in person during the development of PACTOR,
they communicated via cw.

There are regular international speed contests in different modes.
One of them is a simulation of contest traffic. In this mode,
the world record is held from the german ham DL1YFK with
one thousand letters per minute - this is 200 wpm.
When you hear your own call sign in this speed, you think
that there was some very short "click" in the line.

This record of 1000 wpm was certified. It's hard to believe
but nevertheless true.

Martin
DK4XL
waa #025 :-)