When JCB invited me to the Bonneville Salt Flats last week to witness its Hydromax earn the FIA world record for fastest-ever hydrogen-powered car at 406.320 mph, the first question I asked was, “What’s in it for the enthusiast?” Why should we care? Breaking land-speed records at Bonneville is cool, no doubt, but at the time, hydrogen seemed like a dead end to me.
I often stress myself into a sweat thinking about living with either of the two hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles currently on the US market: the Honda CR-V e:FCEV and the Toyota Mirai. The performance is unremarkable, the lack of infrastructure is confining, and hydrogen harvesting can be energy-intensive.
Hydrogen power becomes more charismatic when you harness it with internal combustion, as seen with the Hydromax. Still, it’s not as efficient as the fuel-cell method, and there are some nitrous oxide emissions.
After a few days on the salt flats with JCB, I still had my doubts about hydrogen-powered vehicles playing a bigger role in our future. However, this new world record still bodes well for the type of person who might consider their Miata or 911 a member of the family. Let me explain.
Andy Green Driving The JCB Hydromax
Photo by: JCB
JCB Enlists Heavy Hitters To Achieve Victory Velocities
Once I found out Prodrive (no strangers to Le Mans wins, WRC titles, and BTCC trophies) built the JCB Hydromax, I started to see the enthusiast connection, and that’s not the only impressive name on the roster of companies that helped with the hydrogen-powered, all-wheel-drive streamliner.
Ricardo, the brand that supplied the transmissions in the Bugatti Veyron and Chiron, lent its expertise to wake up the Hydromax’s two JCB hydrogen four-cylinder engines. In production form, they make 74 horsepower each. After Ricardo breathed all over them, the combined output reached 1,600 horsepower.
At the same time, Ricardo reduced the hydrogen engine’s weight by more than 200 pounds. The Hydromax also employs two transmissions co-developed with Xtrac, a firm also known for supplying gearboxes to F1, IndyCar, and Formula E.
Andy Green With The JCB Hydromax
Photo by: JCB
If JCB’s supplier roster wasn’t impressive enough, the man behind the Hydromax’s controls leaves no doubt about the A-list talent involved with this project: retired RAF Wing Commander and engineer Andy Green OBE, literally the fastest man on Earth.
Green is the only person ever to break the sound barrier on land, having achieved 763.035 mph in the jet-powered ThrustSSC in 1997. In 2006, he piloted the JCB Dieselmax to 350.092 mph, a record that remains the world’s fastest for a diesel-powered vehicle.
World records seem to have a habit of holding when Green is involved.
Reaching 406.320 MPH In 450 Days
About 15 months ago, JCB Chairman, Lord Anthony Bamford, commissioned the Hydromax project. A manifestation of JCB’s slogan “jamais content,” or “never content,” which derives from Lord Bamford’s unwillingness to settle.
One Bonneville land-speed record in 2006 wasn’t enough. Bamford had another one in him.
On Monday morning, August 10, I step onto the Bonneville Salt Flats for the first time, wide-eyed and wowed by the vastness of a landscape seemingly cut and pasted from another planet. My inexperience on the salt is a striking contrast to the hustling JCB engineering team. As it prepares for its first proof run of the day, the well-oiled team works as though it’s never left the desert in the 20 years since the Dieselmax’s record.
Four days earlier, the Hydromax had earned the Southern California Timing Association’s (SCTA) Blown Gas Streamliner class record at 368.347 mph during Bonneville Speed Week. Over the weekend after breaking the SCTA record, JCB swapped both of the Hydromax’s engines in preparation for the FIA world land-speed record for hydrogen-powered cars.
“If you change one engine on a car, it’s quite the undertaking. Changing two is even worse,” said Ryan Ballard, Hydromax’s engineering project lead, during a media briefing. JCB didn’t skimp on the failsafes, either, with four spare engines at the ready, just in case.
By 1:11 PM, the team is ready for its first proving run at about a 9/10ths. The wind is calm, and clouds gather in the sky, occasionally diffusing the sun. It’s 97 degrees—abundantly warm, but not awful for Utah in August.
I step onto the Bonneville Salt Flats for the first time, wide-eyed and wowed by the vastness of a landscape seemingly cut and pasted from another planet.
The majority of people around me are British, and I’m incredulous at their scattered complaints about the heat. I mean, I’ve been to London when the temps are in the 90s. Today’s weather feels only a fraction warmer than that.
The salt contradicts the prevailing high mercury. Because it’s incredibly reflective, it’s cool to the touch, like a bare toilet seat. I won’t poo-poo its taste, however. It’s just as delicious as the kosher Mediterranean sea salt sitting on my spice rack, but I digress.
JCB is getting handed near-perfect conditions on a platter.
The yellow streamliner enters stage left as it streaks across the horizon at 330 mph, appearing alien against the untouched perfection of salt meeting sky. The car kicks up a stream of salt vapor roughly the length of a football field, briefly memorializing the glorious disturbance of 1,600 horsepower. Toward the end of its practice sprint, a mirage makes it appear as though the Hydromax is hovering toward the edge of a galaxy far, far away.
Photo by: JCB
Perhaps the only thing missing from this scene is a binary sunset. But unless my film-acting career takes off, this is the closest I’ll ever get to experiencing Star Wars in real life.
Now it’s 3:06 PM. A black Mercedes Sprinter van has delivered me to the southwestern edge of the 10-mile track to watch the Land Rover Defender Octa push the Hydromax up to 50 mph—at that speed, Hydromax engages first gear and begins to move under its own power. Roughly 25 seconds later, the yellow missile disappears behind salt vapor, then falls below the mirage-diffused horizon, somewhere beyond the 2-mile mark.
The platter-worthy conditions persist, and the second and final proving run of the day is a success. Though the media covering the record attempt are dismissed for the day, the Hydromax engineers press on until midnight, perfecting the finishing touches ahead of making history.
The Big Day
It’s 9:03 AM on Tuesday, August 11. It’s not even warm yet. If yesterday’s perfect conditions were served on a platter, today they’re on Zeus’s finest silver, propped up by hands of the white-glove variety.
Hydromax begins its first run headed northeast, or right to left from where I’m standing somewhere between mile markers 5 and 6. The JCB missile blasts past marker 3, entering my field of vision in silence, still far enough away to appear like a horizontal tornado. Seconds later, it’s crossing mile marker four.
The assembly of media surrounding me watches in captivated silence. I can begin to hear the hydrogen combustion engines as the media’s rapid-fire camera shutters burst into overtime to chronicle history.
For about a second, the camera shutters overpower the hydrogen combustion, but as Hydromax enters its fifth mile, it’s clear the JCB engines are working much harder than they were during practice the day before. Though eight cylinders are hurtling Hydromax across the horizon, the sonic profile strikes me as a pair of four-cylinder diesel engines screaming beyond 4,000 rpm.
Photo by: JCB
The sound may not be V8-visceral, but it’s certainly purposeful as the Hydromax passes me, with tire roar and wind noise leveling up in the mix, eventually drowning out the noises responsible for slinging the car down the salt.
Analyzing my video footage, the Hydromax smashes past mile markers 4, 5, and 6 every 9 seconds or so. Verifying the math, that equates to exactly 400 mph. Hydromax would record an official 400.623 mph for that initial run.
According to FIA rules, the Hydromax must complete its return pass within 1 hour. During that time, the team changes the tires and some other wear items, refuels the Hydrogen tank, drains and refills the cooling tanks (which require about 550 pounds of ice per run), and performs a safety check.
The JCB team had been practicing its pit stops well before the car landed at Bonneville. They’ve got their process dialed.
Photo by: JCB
The Final Test
The success continues. It’s 9:51, and Hydromax barrels southwest for its final run. As the antsy media watches from the sidelines, our handlers, in the interest of adhering to FIA safety protocols, cry out “step back” four times to the people in front.
Hydromax roosters up the salt almost to mile marker 4.
After that, the streamliner glides across the horizon with an effortless swagger. Only the sounds of hydrogen combustion indicate the streamliner is fighting the brick wall of drag served up by Earth’s atmosphere.
The industrial whir of the twin four-cylinder engines is more pronounced this time, with the Doppler effect smoothly sculpting that whir into a diesel-aping burble after the car crosses me and then moves away. Tire and wind noise are the inverse of what they were during the first run. Overall, this final pass lacks drama.
Photo by: JCB
That said, it looked fast, with the numbers underscoring that: 412.135 mph. Testing the day before allowed the team to determine the car would be fine to run up to 420 mph. Andy’s top speed during this final run kisses 419.
People found me delusional when I predicted JCB would beat 400 mph that day. With the SCTA record the week before coming in at “only” 368.347, it’s understandable folks would have expected a similar speed for the FIA world record. But I didn’t think Lord Bamford and his team returned to the Bonneville Salt Flats after 20 years only to achieve incremental improvement. Also, back in May, Green Said, “We’re going to smash the hydrogen-powered vehicle record.”
As far as I was concerned, a result less than 400 mph would not have been a smash.
People found me delusional when I predicted JCB would beat 400 mph that day.
Moments later, I see JCB folks assisting someone in distress as they exit a Land Rover Defender support vehicle. It’s been only 3 minutes since Hydromax completed its run, so the day is not yet officially hot by my standards. Maybe they’re dehydrated, but as I walk closer, it’s clear the person is being consoled emotionally. The ball of emotions is Ryan Ballard. He turns away from his team, declaring that he must hug his wife as he walks the few steps toward her.
Upon witnessing this, my confidence in a 400-plus result grows. I don’t think Ryan would have been as emotional with a 380. Though I’m now adamant about 400, people still think I’m crazy.
Sweet Victory, Salty Tears of Joy
After the FIA verifies the final 406.320-mph figure, Bruce Meyer of Petersen Automotive Museum fame and member of the Bonneville 200-MPH Club, before leaving the salt, ventures out of his way to shake my hand and congratulate me on my now-accurate bold prediction. He was the only person who lent credence to my pre-game analysis.
Of course, I had to ask Ryan what was going through his mind during his emotional scene.
“Oh, crikey,” he said. “Just everything, really, going through my mind. I was relieved that Andy was at the other end of the track safely. My major priority and focus on this has always been to do everything we can safely. I don’t want anyone getting hurt. I could see the speed trace had just come in, because I had a live feed on my phone, so I had all the timing data coming in, and I thought, ‘We’ve done it. Wow, we’ve actually done it.’ And so it was just that massive sense of relief, and, yeah, a real special moment.”
I was grateful to have witnessed it.
Photo by: JCB
What’s In It For The Enthusiast?
Don’t expect your dream ride to offer a hydrogen-combustion variant anytime soon. Hydrogen still faces many hurdles to becoming a viable alternative fuel for passenger vehicles. However, it does now make sense as an alternative fuel for heavy industry.
JCB’s hydrogen engines are already well into production. The company has manufactured more than 200 hydrogen combustion engines as of the latter half of June. Other big names are jumping on the Hydrogen bandwagon, too. Volvo Trucks, for example, is developing its own hydrogen-combustion rigs.
As for how this all benefits the enthusiast, the impact is subtler, but no less significant. Ryan framed the Hydromax’s success as “an amalgamation of marginal gains,” where a sprinkle of reduced rolling resistance, a minor aero tweak, and a touch of weight reduction can combine to assume land-speed dominance. This record represents a gain in human achievement, itself a microcosm of human evolution.
Photo by: JCB
Also consider how this record informs future development at Prodrive, Ricardo, and Xtrac; companies that operate much more frequently within the enthusiast’s craw than JCB. There’s also clear evidence that forays into hydrogen are already improving the cars you can buy. Toyota literally took lessons from its GR Corolla H2 Concept to boost torque in the GRMN Corolla.
But even if the record-breaking Hydromax’s innovation-spurring benevolent shockwaves existed only in a vacuum, I’d still celebrate JCB’s rising to the occasion. Witnessing the Hydromax write this historic chapter along the salt deeply moved me to believe that the emotion of this achievement surpasses any measurable practical benefit.
Breaking records is cool, and humanity needs to be doing cool shit while it still can.
