This JCB doesn't dig – it does 406 mph

A JCB has set a new world land speed record, passing 406 mph (653 kph) at Utah's Bonneville Salt Flats. The JCB in question isn't a digger or a dumper, but a hydrogen-powered racer known as the JCB Hydromax, driven by retired Royal Air Force fighter pilot Wing Commander Andy Green. JCB's rocket-like Hydromax races across the …

[just4this]

Useless facts

It's quick but, the just as useless hyperion xp-1 has a better turning circle.

https://static1.topspeedimages.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/hyperion-xp-1-front-three-quarter-race-track.jpg

[Paul Herber]

Re: Useless facts

Which has the best storage for all those coins and stuff you need when out and about?

[jake]

Re: Useless facts

The folks who can afford either set of wheels have people to manage that kind of thing when they are out and about.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Useless facts

A Brexit Unicorn finally from Bamford.

[ICL1900-G3]

Re: Useless facts

He's got a lot to answer for. A typical 'it works for me, I don't care about you ' approach.

[ComicalEngineer]

If only ...

the JCBs belonging to our local water company could work anywhere near as quickly.

[Paul Herber]

Re: If only ...

You'd need a JCB GT for that.

[The Oncoming Scorn]

Re: If only ...

Keep The Hamster away from it.

[IGotOut]

Re: If only ...

Not fast?

Really?

I've found they can destroy under ground cabling quicker than a bunker buster bomb.

[Antonius_Prime]

Re: If only ...

Yes; that's the North American Fiber Seeking Back-Hoe or the European Fiber Seeking Digger. Both related genus'. Both an absolute buggery to prevent feeding.

There's talk of them being an invasive species if seen outside urban areas...

[Yet Another Anonymous coward]

Re: If only ...

But they are the only predators of the AI data center.

It's nature's balance

[CrazyOldCatMan]

Re: If only ...

I've found they can destroy under ground cabling quicker than a bunker buster bomb

Even just by parking on them.

Long-ago tale that probably only interests me:

Ork-1 had what were claimed to be 'fully-diverse internet links'. They were indeed links to two separate ISPs and departed the building by ducts on opposing sides of the building. What we didn't know is that both ducts ended up in a common duct under the carpark of the building next door (which was empty). The business park owner was doing work and used that car-park as a JCB park. We came in one morning to find both circuits were dead. As in - fibre severed dead.

Looked out the front to see a JCB with one the front end considerably lower than the back - the weight of the JCB+bucket (plus the concrete weights in the bucket) had collapsed the duct (which was too close to the surface under only a couple of CM of tarmac) and managed to sever both cables.

Opps. Even though it was pre-cloud, all the various small sites and other offices were dependent on the kit in our server room. We were fine, the rest of the company not so.

Took a week or two before any service was restored as the site owner didn't seem to be in a hurry to grant access to the ducts and, even when they did, the ducts had to be rebuilt before any new fibre could be put in them. We couldn't even run fibre through another duct - that was the only one that actually went to the closest POP and the next nearest POP was about 10 times the distance away and no-one was willing to run fibre to it.

We just had to grin and bear it and mark it down as a known risk.

[Aaiieeee]

Re the ThrustSSC

If you filled those engine air intakes with LEDs, and used the surplus engines power to light them up, the car would be ready for night time driving on British roads.

[Pascal Monett]

Downvoting humor.

My God those snowflakes are sensitive these days.

[Bebu sa Ware]

those snowflakes are sensitive these days.

the ubiquitous damp squibs that surround us are the consequence of their vindictive and petty melting.

[bitwise]

Re: those snowflakes are sensitive these days.

Ooho can I get on this - it's all those darsterdly millenials with their cups of woke in the morning, know waddamean know wddameans nudge nudge wink wink

[GBE]

Re: those snowflakes are sensitive these days.

the ubiquitous damp squibs that surround us are the consequence of their vindictive and petty melting.

Ah Jen, I think you mean "damp squids"...

[Snowy]

Re: those snowflakes are sensitive these days.

Nope damp squibs is correct. Damp squids is an "eggcorn". Which is a fun linguistic term for a misheard word or phrase.

The phrase "a damp squib" comes from 19th-century pyrotechnics. A squib is an old-fashioned small firework or explosive charge. If the gunpowder inside a squib gets wet or damp, the firework fails to explode and just fizzles out, creating a major letdown.

[GBE]

Re: those snowflakes are sensitive these days.

Nope damp squibs is correct. Damp squids is an "eggcorn"

It's a joke, I say a joke son! You're built too low, the fast ones go right over your head!

The "damp squid" comment was a reference to "The IT Crowd" TV show. I thought this was the one place where people would get it. I guess it was a swing and a miss.

[The "It's a joke son" line I stole from Foghorn Leghorn (who stole it from senator Claghorn)]

[jake]

Re: those snowflakes are sensitive these days.

Oh, I dunno ... I pulled a damp squid[0] (and his literbike) out of my creek a couple weeks ago. Little boy wannabe racer missed his turn, hit gravel[1], went over the guard rail, and wound up in the drink. He won't make that mistake again any time soon ... The bike went under running.

_{[0] Squirrely Kid.}

_{[1] Hint: Country backroads aren't as manicured as you coddled city-folks might expect ... ride accordingly.}

[CrazyOldCatMan]

Re: those snowflakes are sensitive these days.

[1] Hint: Country backroads aren't as manicured as you coddled city-folks might expect ... ride accordingly

And French roads are different from UK ones. Especially with their habit [1.5] of laying a nice layer of gravel over a freshly relaid road surface. Produces some interesting seat puckering to go round a bend to discover it [2.5]. Managed to survive by rolling off the throttle and keeping the bike as upright and straight-line as possible.

[1.5] Which seems to be catching on here too now. Sadly, I can no longer ride motorbikes :-(

[2.5] Signage? We don't need signage! The locals know it's there and the foreigners - well, who'll miss a few RosBeef?

[Annihilator]

Re: those snowflakes are sensitive these days.

Well that's certainly knocked you off your pedal stool.

[CrazyOldCatMan]

Re: those snowflakes are sensitive these days.

Ah Jen, I think you mean "damp squids"...

Didn't know that the Navy types inhabited El Reg.

[Roland6]

Re: Re the ThrustSSC

Night time? Obviously not wanting to draw too much attention.

Daytime - could make for an interesting traffic light grand prix and speed camera photo, but suspect insufficient fuel to out run the police for any meaningful distance...

[I could be a dog really]

Re: Re the ThrustSSC

IIRC from the dieselmax one, it would be "rather useless" at the traffic light grand prix. I think the rules allow it to be pushed up to something like 40mph (I think they used a FastTrak), and this was done to avoid all the problems of giving it gearing that would actually allow it to get off the line at all.

I wonder if they used the same cooling ? For the diesel one, they put a hopper full of ice cubes in the front and used that for cooling. Avoids the aerodynamics of having an air intake for cooling, and a bag of ice takes a surprising amount of energy to melt - apparently they could do both runs and still have a load of ice left.

[Yet Another Anonymous coward]

Re: Re the ThrustSSC

That's why they did it in America. British boffins might be able to make 400mph engines but British establishments seem to lack the ability to serve ice.

[Roland6]

Re: Re the ThrustSSC

I did note the similarity in body shape to the Bloodhound SSC, clearly John Piper was making extensive reuse of ideas (and results of modelling and wind tunnel testing), without having to involve lawyers getting permission from the designer of Bloodhound SSC :)

[Roland6]

Re: Re the ThrustSSC

>” apparently they could do both runs and still have a load of ice left.”

Did the champagne survive the trip and was it still chilled?

[Flat Phillip]

Disappointed

Was coming here for a story about a big yellow cable locator with rocket engines strapped to it.

[Roland6]

Re: Disappointed

I’m sure you could strap a cable locator to this, however, not sure of the value of a 406 mph cable locator…

[Phil O'Sophical]

Re: Disappointed

What, you don't want high-speed internet?

[Roland6]

Re: Disappointed

With connection over inductive loop?

[Anonymous Coward]

JCB publicity stunt for an unfeasible tech

Goes from nought to shooting itself in the foot and whining about export restrictions in less than three years

They dug themselves their own hole to die in.

[wolfetone]

Re: JCB publicity stunt for an unfeasible tech

Unfeasible?

The only thing JCB have done that is unfeasible is release an electric digger that will run for 2 hours, then spend the next 8 hours hooked up to a diesel generator on site while it charges. This hydrogen powerplant option has to work. And it will.

Go touch grass pal.

[elsergiovolador]

Digger

Anything can become a digger if you are brave enough...

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Digger

Well, Andy Green apparently *doesn't* hold the world record for the world's fastest plough* with Thrust SCC, but he can now claim the fastest JCB....

The fastest recorded time for ploughing an acre of land is 9 minutes and 49.88 seconds, set by Joe Langcake on October 21, 1989. Apparently ploughing a straight line with a supersonic car doesn't count.

[Caver_Dave]

Re: Plough

For an average 10 furrow plough that's about 220 inches on a pass.

That would make an acre a single pass of 760 yards.

And that record is about 3mph with this set up.

I know a few contractors in Lincolnshire (very large fields and light peaty soil) that go much faster than walking pace. There must be further restrictions on that record.

Declaration: it has been about 50 years since I was last ploughing and that was a single furrow on the back of a little grey Fergie!

[Yet Another Anonymous coward]

Re: Plough

Sounds like a bit of thinking outside the box could come in handy.

A few 100m of det-cord you could plough a field in a millisecond

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Plough

> a single furrow on the back of a little grey Fergie!

Age will get to us all - perhaps the run would have been faster if she were still a ginger.

[stiine]

Speaking of speed

I wonder if there is a class for diggers at The Pike's Peak Hillclimb?

[phuzz]

Re: Speaking of speed

Not sure they have the steering for Pikes Peak, but they did also run at Speed Week last week, and set a new class record for hydrogen-streamliners.

[Anonymous Coward]

Hydrogen must be the perfect fuel

Petrol and Diesel are just inefficient ways of storing the hydrogen that actually powers the engine, It's a shame it's difficult to produce and store commercially.. The only reason for pollution is the fluid carrying the hydrogen. I wonder why they don't use fuel cells to power their JCBs.

Kudos for an engineering achievement.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Hydrogen must be the perfect fuel

" Hydrogen must be the perfect fuel "

Only on paper.

Then there's the nasty reality where you'll realize that 1 kg of H2 needs 11 cubic meters (NTP) to store and then it's not a good fuel at all. Hydrogen also has a funny habit to not stay in a container, especially pressurized. Atom size of 1 or 2 has a lot of nasty side effects and theoretical analysis omits all of those, as usual.

But let's see ...

Ordinany petrol is mostly octane and it has 8 carbons and 18 hydrogens, so 96 C and 18 H, making the atomic weight ratio: 5.3

Hydrogen does have more megajoules per kilo though (141 vs 30 MJ/kg), so it provides the larger part of energy in petrol, about 3:1 what the coal does, but no, it does not 'actually power the engine', it's still the combination of those two.

You also need the coal to keep the petrol in liquid form and from handling and storage point of view it's more imporant than burn value by itself.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Hydrogen must be the perfect fuel

The point was that without the carbon there would be no pollution. The storage problem is just a technical challenge to be solved and when that happens hydrogen combustion engines and fuel cells will become commonplace. Making enough clean hydrogen is another engineering challenge that will hopefully be solved one day soon.

[Anonymous Coward]

406.6 > 406.320

"He [Mickey Thompson] achieved international fame in 1960, when he became the first American to break the 400-mph barrier, driving his Challenger 1 to a one-way top speed of 406.60 mph at the Bonneville Salt Flats and surpassing John Cobb's one-way world record mark of 402 mph." (Wikipedia)

The JCB runs appear to not be a new world land speed record.

Or is the Wikipedia article wrong?

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: 406.6 > 406.320

Speed records are generally certified by someone independent, and are done under certain conditions (the JCB one is apparently under FIA conditions). One-way doesn't count. Cobb's 400mph run was part of his record-setting 394.4mph speed record.

Nothing in Thompson's Wikipedia article claims he was running a hydrogren-powered car either (corrections welcome):

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mickey_Thompson

The JCB run was done using hydrogen as the fuel, and under official land-speed record conditions. So it's a land-speed record for hydrogen-powered piston-engined vehicles. The fact that someone else under different conditions with a different setup once ran quicker one-way isn't relevant.

[Annihilator]

Re: 406.6 > 406.320

Hydrogen-powered land-speed record holder. I imagine the air-speed record holder is the Space Shuttle...

No indications of what the land-speed record was previously. I'm imagining 35mph by one of the buses I often see around Bristol and Edinburgh.

[goblinski]

I love me an exercise in futility as much as the next guy and I shrug off any news of yet the next revolutionary hydrogen vehicle just like said next guy, but I if I put a looooooooottt of good will into it - I could see the case for a hydrogen infrastructure in a captive fleet environment...

Still... Where are we on clean hydrogen again?

[zebm]

Someone failed basic Chemistry

Bamford said. "It shows hydrogen works, and it works today at the highest level with zero emissions."

[xanadu42]

So much negative commentary

I must be naive because I am hoping that new (outside of the box) ideas will help save our future...

JCB seems to hold a similar concept and are ridiculed - history is full of people ridiculed for ideas which, in hindsight, turned out to be the "correct" view...

Does the reader think Galileo's ideas wrong? His ideas at the time were similarly ridiculed...

Upon my first reading of this "record" for a hydrogen-powered vehicle using a conventional internal-combustion engine [https://arstechnica.com/cars/2026/08/jcb-sets-a-new-406-mph-speed-record-for-hydrogen-powered-cars/] I thought this "record" was well due and extremely interesting ...

According to said article the previous record (2004) was 185.5 mph (298.53 km/h) by a BMW H2R i...

Based on my reading (between the lines with too much glamour attributed to future solution?) JCB is aiming at replacing the fuel used by existing diesel engines with new designs and/or some backward engineering to achieve change from diesel to hydrogen...

No matter how hard you try I cannot see any means of creating (nor or in the future) "clean diesel", I CAN see the possibility of creating "clean hydrogen"

Considering how the farming industry relies (almost exclusively, as far as I am aware) on diesel-powered machinery, being able to use hydrogen as a fuel source replacement appears a plus - especially if it requires only a small technological change to existing equipment...

Granted at this time "Green Hydrogen" still seems implausible (as was replacing the horse-drawn carriage with the horseless-carriage back in-the-day)

Are the naysayers suggesting that use of Hydrogen Fuel as an alternative/replacement is not at least something worth investigating - From my memory many naysayers have been proven wrong time and time again...

Give JCB the chance to prove their ideas instead of kicking them when they have proved an idea outside of what is expected...

If JCB are wrong, they are wrong, if not many farmers will benefit by being able to convert their existing diesel engines to Hydrogen at much less cost than replacing same with totally electric machinery...

Change is difficult and our historical reliance on what we think is good for US doesn't equate to "What is best for the planet" (on which we live in rely on)...

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: So much negative commentary

......."Granted at this time "Green Hydrogen" still seems implausible (as was replacing the horse-drawn carriage with the horseless-carriage back in-the-day)"

I understand silage can produce hydrogen, collecting it on the farm seems feasible, perhaps JCB can design a system to do this as well.

If everyone had taken the negative views with computing we'd still be using an abacus. JCB have also proved the power of their engine design, keep it up but please stay away from my fibre.

[jake]

Damn right it doesn't dig.

In racing, a "dig" is a technical term meaning "standing start". This thing gets pushed into and through the official entrance to the marked track, at which point it proceeds under its own power. As it is already moving, it is what we would call a "roll racer", not a "digger[0]".

_{[0] "Digger" is a somewhat old fashioned term and rarely used these days, but old-time drag racers will know what you mean.}

[CrazyOldCatMan]

Liters?

I think you mean 'litres'

Yes, yes, I know that the old UK-based El Reg is a long-distant faded memory but it would be nice if some remnant of proper spelling had remained and been mandated.