What's the news?
The boss of famed maker of big yellow things, Lord Bamford, has dropped a very big hint that JCB could have another go at breaking the Land Speed Record for diesel power. But only if someone else breaks it first.
The current record has stood for a decade, set in 2006 by JCB's remarkable four-engined Diesemax streamliner and at a special dinner to mark the anniversary, Lord Bamford told the assembled JCB team that "you did an amazing job in achieving the diesel land speed record - it was our own Olympics and we won it. 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. I came up with the idea of attempting a land speed record when we 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 digger engine. I wanted to prove that in fact, it was state-of-the-art."
The record was set by none other than RAF Wing Commander Andy Green, the same man who had set the first and thus far only supersonic Land Speed Record in the jet-powered Thrust SSC car in 1997. He said: "It's great to celebrate 10 years of this team being world champions. I have been back to Bonneville a few times since we set the record and the Americans are still today talking about the 350mph record and are asking when will the 'big yellow car' come out to play again. It was extraordinary: you are still world champions 10 years later and it was a great source of pride to have been part of this team."
Project Director Tim Leverton said: "When Lord Bamford first asked me about whether we could attempt the speed record I just thought he was mad! People often ask me what was the most amazing thing 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."
Needless to say, this being a JCB project, the whole thing was started by a digger. Literally - the Dieselmax record car was so highly geared that it needed a shove from behind to get rolling, a shove provided by a big yellow thing. Retired JCB employee Colin Bond had the job of driving a high-speed JCB Fastrac tractor on the Salt Flats to give the Dieselmax its push off ahead of achieving the record. He said: "It's been fantastic to be back with the team again. Meeting everyone 10 years down the road has been absolutely great. Pushing the car and then seeing it break the record was amazing."
So, what we need now is a company that needs to make diesel appealing and sexy again to step forward and take the record away from JCB so that we can have a good old world record ding-dong. Anyone at Volkswagen looking for a fun project?