JCB has done it again. Twenty years after the British engineering giant took its diesel-powered Dieselmax to the Bonneville Salt Flats and set a world record, it has returned with something far more odd, futuristic and green at the same time — a hydrogen powered car that has just cracked 650 kph.
Called the JCB Hydromax, it’s a twin-engined streamliner that’s recorded an average speed of 406.320 mph, or 654 kph, making it the fastest hydrogen internal-combustion vehicle ever built. Driven by Wing Commander Andy Green OBE, the car managed 400.623 mph (644.9 kph) on its first run and an astonishing 412.135 mph (663.3 kph) on its second. Under FIA rules, the two runs have to be completed in opposite directions within an hour, with the average 650 kph speed record. The result is now subject to official FIA ratification.
That’s a huge leap over the previous FIA-recognised hydrogen internal-combustion record of 185.5 mph (298.5 kph), set by the BMW H2R way back in 2004. More impressively, Hydromax has also gone beyond the 303 mph (487.6 kph) hydrogen fuel-cell record, making it the fastest hydrogen-powered vehicle of any kind. But the really interesting bit is what’s powering it. Rather than using a hydrogen fuel cell to generate electricity, Hydromax burns hydrogen directly inside two internal-combustion engines. These are production-based inline-four hydrogen engines developed by JCB for its construction equipment, manufactured at the company’s engine facility in Foston, Derbyshire. Together, they produce around 1600 bhp.
This isn’t the first time the heavy-equipment-maker has been obsessed with speed. In August 2006, its Dieselmax reached 350.092 mph (563.5 kph) at Bonneville, setting the FIA world diesel land speed record. Andy Green was behind the wheel then, too, and that record still stands. Two decades later, he has returned to the same salt flats, this time with hydrogen powering the machinery. Green is hardly a stranger to speed. He remains the fastest person ever to travel on land, having reached 763.035 mph (1228.2 kph) in the Thrust SSC and becoming the only person to break the sound barrier on land.
JCB’s other special land speed record holders include the Fastrac tractor which reached 135.191 mph (217.6 kph) in 2019, and the JCB GT backhoe which managed 72.58 mph (116.8 kph) in 2014. Now, the Hydromax has added another, rather spectacular chapter to JCB’s obsession with speed.
