Serving tech enthusiasts for over 25 years.
TechSpot means tech analysis and advice you can trust.
In a nutshell: Andy Green will return to Utah's Bonneville Salt Flats on Tuesday in a new kind of record car: one powered by hydrogen-burning engines. The British driver, who holds the land-speed record for a diesel car, will drive JCB's Hydromax in an official attempt overseen by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile. The company is using the run to demonstrate its hydrogen internal-combustion technology under extreme conditions.
The Hydromax is a 32-foot vehicle powered by two hydrogen engines adapted from JCB construction machinery. Together, they produce 1,600 horsepower. Rather than using hydrogen in a fuel cell to make electricity, the engines mix pressurized hydrogen gas with air and ignite it.
Green reached 368.347 mph during practice last week. If he can repeat that performance in the official attempt, he would beat the 350.092 mph diesel record he set at Bonneville 20 years ago. He could also pass the current hydrogen internal-combustion record of 185.5 mph and the electric-vehicle record of 341.3 mph.
