Andy Green is back in Utah with JCB. The 64-year-old retired Royal Air Force fighter pilot will try to beat his 20-year-old land speed record in the hydrogen-powered JCB Hydromax on Tuesday at the Bonneville Salt Flats. He has already reached 368.347 mph in practice, but that is not enough on its own.
350.092 mph is the mark Green set 20 years ago in a diesel-powered car. The new run has to happen in front of the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile for the hydrogen effort to count as an official record, turning Tuesday into a single timed attempt rather than a test drive.
32ft is the length of the JCB Hydromax, which uses two hydrogen internal combustion engines with a combined 1,600 horsepower. JCB adapted those engines from construction machinery, a move that gives the car a direct industrial link rather than a one-off racing build. If the run matches the practice pace, the record changes; if it does not, the practice number stays unofficial.
763.035 mph was Green’s outright land speed record in 1997, set in a car powered by twin jet engines. That earlier run in Nevada’s Black Rock Desert produced sonic booms that shook Gerlach, a very different machine and a very different method from the hydrogen car he is driving now.
“What the peak speed is, I can’t say. We just don’t know,” Green said of the Utah attempt, adding, “Part of the adventure here is we’re going to find out.” The uncertainty is not about the destination on the salt; it is about whether the official pass can top the practice figure under Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile rules.
Bonneville Salt Flats on Tuesday
Tuesday is the pressure point. Green must make the official run at the Bonneville Salt Flats, with the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile watching, if he wants the hydrogen record attached to his name.
368.347 mph in practice gives JCB a workable benchmark, but only the official pass counts. Green came out of retirement when JCB approached him with the project, and the result now turns on one run, one surface and one set of timing officials.
