JCB DIESEL MAX  -  SPECIFICATIONS

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JCB DIESELMAX SETS NEW RECORD 350 mph  - 23 August 2006

The JCB Dieselmax is a diesel-engined 'Streamliner' car designed for the purpose of breaking the land speed record for a diesel-engined vehicle. The chassis was designed and built by Coventry-based engineering company Visioneering, with engine and gearbox development by Ricardo Consulting Engineers. During the 2006 Bonneville Speed Week and subsequent FIA record runs, the car was driven by Wing Commander Andy Green, a serving RAF Officer who previously broke the absolute land speed record in the ThrustSSC.

The car itself is powered by specially-tuned versions of the production JCB444 powerplant, developing up to 750bhp each (over 5 times the power output of the production version) and featuring 4 cylinders and 5 litres of displacement, accompanied by twin compound turbochargers and twin compound intercoolers. As the size of the car prohibited meaningful Wind Tunnel testing, the streamlined shape of the car was refined entirely though the use of computational fluid dynamics, which has enabled the car to obtain a very low coefficient of drag of only 0.174 and a C_dA value (drag coefficient x frontal area) of only 0.153 m². The fully-laden weight of the vehicle, including fuel, oil, ice, water coolant and the driver, is only slightly less than 2,700kg.

The car began shakedown testing on July 20th 2006 on the runway at RAF Wittering, with the team slowly ramping up the speed to prove the chassis and engines, eventually acheiving a speed of over 200mph on July 30th.  On August 13th, after several days spent re-assembling and re-testing the car at Wendover, the Dieselmax made its first official run on the Bonneville Salt as part of Speed Week, eventually attaining an average speed of 317mph to take the SCTA-BNI event record for an 'AA/DS' Diesel Streamliner.

On 22nd August 2006, the JCB Dieselmax car broke the official FIA diesel engine land speed record, attaining a speed of 328.767mph (529km/h). 24 hours later, the JCB Dieselmax car broke its own record, achieving a speed of 350.092mph (563.418km/h) on 23rd August 2006. Before the JCB Dieselmax records, the diesel land speed record was 236mph (380km/h), set in August 1973.

In a live interview from Utah on BBC News 24, Andy Green said that the car was not running at its full potential, due to problems finding suitable tyres and that this speed was achieved while the car was still in fifth gear (the car has six).

JCB Dieselmax record car and team - Bonneville salt flats

LINKS

JCB DIESELMAX PRESS OFFICE

Amanda Gadeselli
T: +44 (0)20 7384 8701
E: amanda.gadeselli@fingal.co.uk

Peter Panarisi
T: +44 (0)20 7384 8720
E: peter.panarisi@fingal.co.uk

North America

Brendan Prebo
T: +1 313 6831155
E: bprebo@asgren.com

JCB WORLD COMMUNICATIONS

Daniel Ward
T: +44 (0)1889 59 3602
E: daniel.ward@jcb.com

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