UK: JCB Deiselmax breaks 200 mph barrier in testing for attempt on diesel land speed record

The 200 mph (321 kph) barrier was broken on Sunday (July 30) by the JCB Dieselmax in testing for an attempt on the land speed record for diesel-powered vehicles on the Bonneville Salt Flats, Utah, USA in August. During two weeks of testing at RAF Wittering in Cambridgeshire the diesel-powered JCB car achieved its target UK test speed of 201mph. Since its first run on Saturday 22 July, driver Andy Green has tested the JCB Dieselmax's systems and handling at increasing speed on a 1.6 mile runway at Wittering that is more used to the traffic of RAF Harrier jump jets. On Sunday the car, which is powered by two modified versions of the standard engine used in JCB's backhoe loaders, reached its UK target of 200 miles per hour. Over the next four weeks Green aims to smash the current diesel-powered land speed record of 235.756 mph (379.33 kph) set by Virgil W. Snyder in August 1973, travelling at speeds in excess of 300 miles an hour on the world-famous Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah. The gruelling ten day test schedule forced engineers to work around the clock in blistering heat to prepare the British designed and built car for its unique challenge. The JCB Dieselmax team is now packing the vehicle for its trip to the U.S.A., where it will be prepared on arrival in Utah to take part in 'Bonneville Speed Week' (12-18 August), a spectacular annual event which attracts hundreds of entrants from all over the world to race vehicles ranging from hot rods to roadsters, motorcycles, streamliners and even diesel trucks. The serious business of attempting to break the record will not begin until after Speed Week when, between 21-26 August, the car has just five days in which to make a series of runs early in the morning when optimum conditions exist before the full heat of the sun draws moisture to the surface of the salt. Currently daytime temperatures on the Bonneville Salt Flats are well over 40 degrees Celsius and the cockpit of the Dieselmax heats rapidly when the engines are running, so over the next two weeks Andy Green will have to work hard to increase his tolerance of high temperatures. Green earned the title 'the fastest man on Earth' when he set the first-ever supersonic world land speed record at 763.035 mph (1227.72 kph) in the jet-propelled Thrust SSC, on the Black Rock Desert, Nevada, in October 1997. His love affair with speed follows in the great tradition of legendary British figures such as Sir Malcolm Campbell, George Eyston and John Cobb. To challenge the Diesel World Land Speed Record, JCB has developed an ultra sleek, nine metre long streamliner car powered by two turbo-charged diesel engines. The project is the brainchild of JCB chairman Sir Anthony Bamford, who sees it as an unique opportunity to demonstrate the talent and ingenuity of British engineers to a global audience.

ITN Source | August 3, 2006

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