JCB Hydromax hits 592.797 km/h on hydrogen, breaking a 16-year-old record
JCB’s hydrogen-engined Hydromax has set a new SCTA class record on the Bonneville Salt Flats. Driven by Wing Commander Andy Green OBE, the 9.75-metre streamliner recorded a two-run average of 592.797 km/h, beating a mark that had stood since 2010 by more than 32 km/h. JCB’s next target is an FIA world record, with the combined output of the car’s two engines set to rise to around 1.2 MW.
Hydromax competed at Bonneville Speed Week in the Southern California Timing Association’s AA/BGS Blown Gas Streamliner class for engines over 500 cubic inches. To claim the record, the car had to complete two successful runs on consecutive days, with the official result calculated from the average of the maximum speeds recorded.
Hydromax reached 590.856 km/h on its first run and 594.740 km/h on the second. The resulting 592.797 km/h average eclipsed the 560.602 km/h record set by the Spectre Streamliner in 2010. That represents an improvement of 32.195 km/h, or roughly 5.7 per cent.
The SCTA record is not yet an FIA world record
JCB’s latest result is an official SCTA class record, but it should not be confused with an FIA world record.
The team remained at Bonneville after Speed Week to prepare for a separate FIA-sanctioned record attempt, which will be run under the Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile’s own technical, timing and record regulations.
The 592.797 km/h result was therefore both a record in its own right and a dress rehearsal. JCB used Speed Week to validate the car and gather data before attempting higher-power runs.
Two hydrogen combustion engines will produce around 1.2 MW
Hydromax does not use fuel cells or electric traction. At its heart are two production-based JCB hydrogen internal-combustion engines.
For the FIA record attempt, the team plans to turn them up towards a combined 1,600 bhp, equivalent to approximately 1,193 kW.
Crucially, JCB did not use the engines’ full available output during the SCTA record runs. The company has not disclosed exactly how much power they were producing when Hydromax achieved its 592.797 km/h average.
That leaves clear performance headroom for the FIA attempt, although additional engine power does not translate into a proportional increase in top speed. At these velocities, aerodynamic drag becomes increasingly dominant and rises very rapidly with speed.
Andy Green is no stranger to records
Hydromax is driven by Andy Green, holder of the outright land-speed record. In 1997, he drove ThrustSSC to 1,227.985 km/h, becoming the first — and still the only — person to officially break the sound barrier in a car on land.
Green also drove the JCB Dieselmax, which set the FIA world land-speed record for diesel-powered cars at Bonneville in 2006 with a two-run average of 563.418 km/h.
Hydromax’s latest SCTA result is almost 29.4 km/h faster, but the two records are not directly comparable. The cars belong to different categories and their records were ratified by different organisations.
Hydrogen is burned, not converted into electricity
The technical significance of Hydromax lies in its powertrain. JCB is backing hydrogen combustion primarily as an alternative for heavy machinery, where the mass, charging time and energy requirements of very large batteries can make a fully electric solution difficult.
In principle, a hydrogen combustion engine works much like a conventional piston engine, except that it burns hydrogen instead of a fossil fuel. Because hydrogen itself contains no carbon, burning the fuel does not produce carbon dioxide from the hydrogen itself.
That does not make the engine entirely emissions-free. Nitrogen oxides can still form at high combustion temperatures, while the technology’s overall climate impact also depends heavily on how the hydrogen is produced.
Hydromax’s record therefore does not prove that hydrogen combustion is economically or environmentally superior. It does, however, demonstrate that the technology can operate at close to 600 km/h and under extremely high loads.
JCB now prepares for the main attempt
By the time of the SCTA record, the Hydromax development and test programme had reached 44 runs. The team increased speed progressively to validate the engines, drivetrain and vehicle stability before moving towards full power.
JCB’s next objective is an FIA-ratified land-speed record with the hydrogen-powered Hydromax. For that attempt, the team plans to raise the combined output of the two engines to around 1,193 kW.
The 592.797 km/h SCTA record shows that Hydromax is already operating at an extraordinary level. The next challenge is to repeat the performance under FIA rules — with significantly more power available.
