Overview
- JCB’s Hydromax completed two opposite-direction runs on Tuesday that recorded 400.623 mph and 412.135 mph, producing a two-way average of 406.320 mph that the team says is a new hydrogen land-speed mark.
- Wing Commander Andy Green drove the 32-foot streamliner for the runs that followed an earlier Bonneville SpeedWeek outing where Hydromax set a 368.347 mph SCTA class record.
- The car is powered by two production-based JCB hydrogen internal-combustion engines uprated to about 800 bhp each for roughly 1,600 bhp total, with hydrogen stored at around 700 bar, direct injection, ice-based intake cooling, and specialist Xtrac gearboxes.
- JCB frames the run as a direct technology link to its £100 million hydrogen programme and its production engines for construction equipment, and the effort drew public praise from FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem and JCB chairman Lord Bamford.
- The result is provisional while the FIA reviews it, and independent climate and engineering questions remain about large-scale green-hydrogen supply, lifecycle emissions versus tailpipe-free combustion, and safety and operational limits for wider use.