Friday Fun: JCB Celebrates Tenth Anniversary of Dieselmax Car Record
JCB Chairman Lord Bamford has indicated a fresh attempt on the world diesel land speed record that could be made in the future — if the one set by JCB exactly a decade ago is ever broken. Lord Bamford spoke at a recent event celebrating the 10th anniversary of the JCB Dieselmax car — powered by two JCB engines — setting a diesel land speed record of 350.092 mph on the Bonneville Salts Flats in Utah on August 23, 2006. Lord Bamford joined members of the record-breaking team at the World HQ in Rocester, Staffordshire, ahead of a special dinner to mark the milestone.
“You did an amazing job in achieving the diesel land speed record — it was our own Olympics and we won it,” said Bamford. “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.”
Bamford came up with the idea of attempting a land speed record when JCB 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 heavy equipment engine,” said Bamford “I wanted to prove that in fact it was state-of-the art.”
“When Lord Bamford first asked me about whether we could attempt the speed record, I just thought he was mad,” said Project Director Tim Leverton. “People often ask me what the most amazing thing was 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 car.
“It’s great to celebrate 10 years of this team being world champions,” said Green. “I have been back to Bonneville a few times since we set the record and people are still talking about the 350 mph record and asking when the ‘big yellow car’ will come out to play again. Ten years later, we are still World Champions and it has been a great source of pride to have been part of this team.”
Retired JCB employee Colin Bond of Uttoxeter had the job of driving a high-speed JCB Fastrac tractor on the Salt Flats to give the Dieselmax car its push off ahead of achieving the record.
“It’s been fantastic to be back with the team again,” said Bond. “Meeting everyone 10 years down the road has been absolutely great. Pushing the car and then seeing it break the record was amazing.”
Since production began in 2004, JCB has made around 375,000 engines at its plants in Derbyshire, UK and India. JCB originally began producing engines to power its own machines and today, more than 70 percent of the company’s products are fitted with a JCB engine. Companies around the world now buy it for their products. Overseas third-party sales grew by more than 325 percent between 2012 and 2014.
On August 23, JCB Power Systems was also presented with two Queen’s Awards for the JCB engine — one honoring innovation and another marking a massive growth in overseas sales to third party customers.
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