British driver Andy Green has done a lot of things that no one else in the world has been able to do. Over the years, he has been a Wing Commander in the Royal Air Force and is the only person ever to break the sound barrier on land.
On Tuesday, the 64-year-old did something else that no one has ever done before when he obliterated the land speed record for a hydrogen-powered car by going 406 MPH at the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah.
Driving the JCB Hydromax, Andy Green recorded an average speed of 400.623 mph in its first run of the day and 412.135 mph on its second run, giving him an average of 406.320 mph – the fastest a hydrogen internal combustion car has ever traveled.
The twin-engined, 32-foot JCB Hydromax destroyed the previous FIA-officiated hydrogen internal combustion benchmark of 185.5 mph set by the BMW H2R in 2004. The run also beat the 303 mph hydrogen fuel cell record, making it the fastest hydrogen-powered vehicle of any kind in history.
Andy Green is no stranger to going fast
Andy Green also surpassed the 350.092 mph world diesel land speed record he set in the JCB Dieselmax on the Bonneville Salt Flats in August 2006.
“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,” said JCB Chairman Anthony Bamford. “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.”
Andy Green previously set the world land speed record by driving 763.035 miles per hour on October 15, 1997, in Nevada’s Black Rock Desert. It was the first time a land vehicle had ever created a sonic boom and was 50 years and 1 day after the sound barrier was broken in flight by Chuck Yeager.