JCB this week celebrated the 10th anniversary of its historic JCB Dieselmax car—powered by twin JCB diesel engines—setting a diesel land speed record of 563.42km/h back in 2006.
The record was set on August 23, 2006 at the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah, USA.
JCB UK chairman Lord Bamford spoke at a special celebration event for the anniversary at JCB World HQ in Staffordshire, UK and indicated JCB would be willing to make a fresh attempt at the record, provided the one it set was ever broken.
“You did an amazing job in achieving the diesel land speed record – it was our own Olympics and we won it,” Bamford said.
“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.”
Members of the original Dieselmax team were also there to help mark the special occasion, including project director Tim Leverton who paid tribute to his team.
“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.”
Also celebrating the event was the driver of the Dieselmax car Wing Commander Andy Green, who said the land speed record was still being celebrated at Bonneville.
“It’s great to celebrate 10 years of this team being world champions,” Green said.
“I have been back to Bonneville a few times since we set the record and the Americans are still today talking about the 350 mph [563.27km/h] 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.”
JCB is certainly no stranger to setting records, as it also holds the record of fastest digger on Earth after one of its excavators recorded 116.82km/h on 21 October 2014 at Bathurst Airport, NSW.