JCB chairman throws down the gauntlet on world speed record
THE chairman of Staffordshire excavator manufacturer, JCB has said the firm is prepared to mount a fresh attempt on its world diesel land speed record – should anyone ever take it away from the Rocester business.
The current record of 350.092mph was set by the JCB Dieselmax car – powered by two JCB engines – on the Bonneville Salts Flats in Utah a decade ago.
Marking the tenth anniversary of the record-breaking performance, Lord Bamford said he was eager to have another crack at the record and urged a challenger to come forward.
Speaking at a special event at the firm’s Rocester headquarters to celebrate the anniversary, Lord Bamford told engineers from the original attempt that they had done an amazing job.
“It was our own Olympics and we won it. My biggest regret is that nobody else has beaten our record. Let’s hope someone else comes along and we can have another crack at the record,” he said.
“I came up with the idea of attempting a land speed record when we decided to get into diesel engines. It was a very serious project and I wanted to make sure that our engine wasn’t regarded as being just a digger engine. I wanted to prove that in fact it was state-of-the art.”
Project Director Tim Leverton said: “When Lord Bamford first asked me about whether we could attempt the speed record I just thought he was mad. People often ask me what was the most amazing thing about being part of this project and I have no hesitation in saying: the team.
“I’d like to thank Lord Bamford for sharing his dream with us. He gave us the chance to make that dream our own and create our own piece of history.”
Among those joining in the celebrations was Wing Commander Andy Green, who drove the Dieselmax car.
He said: “It’s great to celebrate 10 years of this team being world champions. I have been back to Bonneville a few times since we set the record and the Americans are still today talking about the 350 mph record and are asking when will the ‘big yellow car’ come out to play again.
“It was extraordinary: you are still world champions 10 years later and it was a great source of pride to have been part of this team.”
Wing Commander Green could soon be the holder of the outright land speed record as he is also the pilot for Richard Noble’s SSC Bloodhound, which set to attempt to recapture the world record for Britain in South Africa next year.
Since production started in 2004, JCB has made around 375,000 diesel engines at its plants in Derbyshire and India. JCB originally began producing engines to power its own machines and today more than 70% of all the company’s products are fitted with the JCB engine.
Such has been the success of the engine that other companies around the world now buy it for their products and overseas third party sales grew by more than 325% between 2012 and 2014.
JCB Power Systems is a recipient of a Queen’s Award for its efforts.
