{"id":566773,"date":"2026-08-12T14:08:20","date_gmt":"2026-08-12T14:08:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/566773\/"},"modified":"2026-08-12T14:08:20","modified_gmt":"2026-08-12T14:08:20","slug":"jcb-hydromax-reaches-650km-h-plus-in-hydrogen-speed-record-bid-on-bonneville-salt-flats","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/566773\/","title":{"rendered":"JCB Hydromax reaches 650km\/h-plus in hydrogen speed record bid on Bonneville Salt Flats"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"BXSdIJQrZoWgYbVqzX\" style=\"display:none\">According to JCB, a British construction equipment manufacturer, the Hydromax recorded an average speed of 644km\/h on its first run and 663km\/h on its second. Under the rules, land speed records are based on the average of two runs in opposite directions completed within one hour.<\/p>\n<p class=\"BXSdIJQrZoWgYbVqzX\" style=\"display:none\">The resulting average of 653.87km\/h surpassed the previous hydrogen internal-combustion record of 298.5km\/h set by BMW\u2019s H2R in 2004, Forbes reported.<\/p>\n<p><img  alt=\"A hydrogen-powered streamliner driven by land speed legend Andy Green has set a new hydrogen vehicle record of 653.87km\/h at Utah's Bonneville Salt Flats. Photo \/ JCB\" class=\"article-media__image responsively-lazy\" data-test-ui=\"article-media__image\"\/>A hydrogen-powered streamliner driven by land speed legend Andy Green has set a new hydrogen vehicle record of 653.87km\/h at Utah&#8217;s Bonneville Salt Flats. Photo \/ JCB<\/p>\n<p class=\"BXSdIJQrZoWgYbVqzX\" style=\"display:none\">While the new benchmark is a significant milestone for hydrogen-powered transport, it remains well short of the outright world land speed record, according to the Guardian. <\/p>\n<p class=\"BXSdIJQrZoWgYbVqzX\" style=\"display:none\">That\u2019s no disappointment to Green.<\/p>\n<p class=\"BXSdIJQrZoWgYbVqzX\" style=\"display:none\">He claimed that title almost 30 years ago when he drove the jet-powered Thrust SSC to 1227.985km\/h in Nevada\u2019s Black Rock Desert in 1997, becoming the first person to officially break the sound barrier on land, the Associated Press reported.<\/p>\n<p><img  alt=\"Andy Green after  a test run of the JCB Dieselmax Challenger at RAF Wittering, Cambridgeshire, in 2006. Photo \/ Getty Images\" class=\"article-media__image responsively-lazy\" data-test-ui=\"article-media__image\"\/>Andy Green after  a test run of the JCB Dieselmax Challenger at RAF Wittering, Cambridgeshire, in 2006. Photo \/ Getty Images<\/p>\n<p class=\"BXSdIJQrZoWgYbVqzX\" style=\"display:none\">The vehicle bears little resemblance to a conventional road car. Measuring nearly 10m in length, it is powered by two hydrogen combustion engines producing a combined 1600 horsepower, with one mounted ahead of the driver and the other behind, according to JCB.<\/p>\n<p class=\"BXSdIJQrZoWgYbVqzX\" style=\"display:none\">\u201cIt\u2019s magic to be able to showcase this technology and to showcase how good the engineering is on the best racing surface in the world, Bonneville Salt Flats,\u201d Green told the Associated Press after the run.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"According to JCB, a British construction equipment manufacturer, the Hydromax recorded an average speed of 644km\/h on its&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":566774,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[279040,279043,9526,2177,20497,1040,279041,27126,138,4189,46009,41227,279042,279039,78,196719,19720,111,139,69,90,2847,32258,1974,51921,26660,25093,257467,6845],"class_list":["post-566773","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-650kmhplus","tag-6539kmh","tag-another","tag-average","tag-barrier","tag-bid","tag-bonneville","tag-break","tag-business","tag-driving","tag-flats","tag-hydrogen","tag-hydrogenpowered","tag-hydromax","tag-in","tag-jcb","tag-land","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-on","tag-only","tag-reaches","tag-record","tag-salt","tag-sound","tag-speed","tag-utahs","tag-vehicle"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/566773","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=566773"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/566773\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/566774"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=566773"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=566773"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=566773"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}