JCB Hydromax recorded an average speed 400.623mph (644.740km/h) in its first run at the Bonneville Salt Flats this month, and 412.135mph (663.266km/h) on its second run, giving an average of 406.320mph (653.908km/h) – the fastest a hydrogen internal combustion car has ever traveled.
Driven by Wing Commander Andy Green OBE, the twin-engined, 9.7m car completed the two runs required under Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA) rules – one in each direction within an hour – comfortably beating the previous FIA-officiated hydrogen internal combustion benchmark of 185.5mph (298.5km/h) set by the BMW H2R in 2004. The record is subject to official ratification by the FIA.
The JCB Hydromax also surpassed the 350.092mph (563.418km/h) world diesel land speed record set by JCB Dieselmax in August 2006.
Green said, “The car was terrific – stable, strong and fast. Setting a world land speed record with hydrogen power, 20 years after Dieselmax, is a huge privilege. This record is a huge achievement by a world-class team and superb technology.”
The record – in Category A, Group XIV – Class 7 FIA World Flying Record Start Land Speed Record – was set using two of JCB’s production-based hydrogen digger engines, producing a combined 1,600bhp and manufactured at the company’s engine factory in Derbyshire in the UK. They are the same engines now powering JCB machines and equipment rolling off production lines in the UK as part of the company’s £100m (US$135m) hydrogen program.
JCB chairman Anthony Bamford said, “Twenty years ago we came to Bonneville with JCB Dieselmax and showed what British engineering could do with diesel power. Today we have done it again – this time with engines powered by hydrogen. This record was set by production-based engines, the same engines powering JCB diggers right now. That is the point of JCB Hydromax: it shows hydrogen works, and it works today at the highest level with zero emissions.”
JCB engineering director Ryan Ballard commented, “This record belongs to the engineering team that took a hydrogen digger engine and made it the fastest of its kind on Earth. This has been an amazing challenge from the outset. We came here fully prepared, and the car delivered.”
In related news, Toyota Gazoo Racing to enter hydrogen fuel cell Hilux in 2027 Dakar Rally