WENDOVER, Utah – Andy Green, the only driver ever to break the sound barrier on land, is back on the salt in Utah this week with a new machine and another speed record in his sights.
Two decades after setting the diesel-powered land speed record at 350.092 mph (563.4 kph) on the Bonneville Salt Flats, the British driver is returning to the stark, otherworldly course Tuesday to pursue an even faster run — this time in a hydrogen-powered car.
For Green, a retired Royal Air Force fighter pilot, the effort is about more than adding another milestone to his résumé. He also wants to demonstrate hydrogen’s potential as a clean-energy option, calling it the “fuel of the future” in a July interview with The Associated Press.
Green will pilot the JCB Hydromax, a 32-foot (9.75-meter) vehicle developed by British construction equipment maker JCB. Long, narrow and painted bright yellow, the car has a pencil-like profile and is driven by two hydrogen internal combustion engines producing a combined 1,600 horsepower. The engines, adapted from those used in JCB construction machinery, generate power by mixing pressurized hydrogen gas with air and igniting it.
By chasing his own diesel-powered record, Green is also expected to surpass the existing world marks for hydrogen internal combustion engines, currently 185.5 mph (298.5 kph), and electric vehicles, which stands at 341.3 mph (549.2 kph).
During practice last week, Green reached a new top speed of 368.347 mph (592.797 kph). To make the hydrogen record official, however, he must repeat the feat Tuesday under the supervision of the Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile, motor sports’ international governing body.
“What the peak speed is, I can’t say. We just don’t know,” Green said. “Part of the adventure here is we’re going to find out.”
Even so, Tuesday’s run is not expected to come close to the supersonic speeds Green achieved with jet power nearly 30 years ago.
Green had already been flying supersonic military aircraft when he spotted a newspaper ad that read: “Wanted: High-speed driver to break the sound barrier,” according to the Guinness World Records. In 1997, he traveled faster than the speed of sound and set the outright land speed record — 763.035 mph (1,227.98 kph) — in a car powered by twin jet engines. His runs in Nevada’s Black Rock Desert produced sonic booms that shook the nearby town of Gerlach.
Now 64 years old, Green said he thought he was done racing but came out of retirement when JCB approached him with plans for the new car. The company has invested more than $134 million into hydrogen-powered engines that it says emit no carbon dioxide from the tailpipes.
“If you’re serious about emissions, you have to be serious about hydrogen, and a land speed project is the perfect way to prove it,” JCB Chair Anthony Bamford said at the car’s unveiling in May. Bamford has also argued that hydrogen can better handle the demands of heavy industries than electric power.
But hydrogen is only as clean as its source, and the vast majority is currently produced from fossil fuels. JCB signed a deal to buy green hydrogen, which is created using renewable energy but makes up a tiny fraction of global hydrogen production.
Hydrogen combustion engines also present unique safety challenges due to the high pressure and flammability of the gas.
“We’re managing the risks very carefully,” Green said. The car endured rigorous testing, and Green said he spent months learning how it responds to the elements, how the engines work in tandem and how to deploy a parachute to slow the car on the low-friction salt crust.
Since the first race there in 1914, the glassy surface of the Bonneville Salt Flats has drawn generations of drivers seeking to set new land speed records. A remnant of a prehistoric lake bed, the salt flats are about 100 miles (160 kilometers) west of Salt Lake City and sit atop an aquifer that cools the tires of the cars.
Spectators must stand about a quarter of a mile (400 meters) from the course’s straightaway, which is 10 miles (16 kilometers) long, and often watch through wide-angle binoculars.
The expanse on the border of Utah and Nevada has also been a backdrop for movies including “Independence Day” and “The World’s Fastest Indian,” and the series finale of “Mad Men.”
Green will start about an hour before sunrise Tuesday. His attempt comes a year after a driver going 283 mph (455 kph) died trying to set a land speed record at Bonneville’s annual Speed Week. Chris Raschke lost control of his rocketlike vehicle called the Speed Demon last August and died from his injuries.
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Rico reported from Atlanta. Video journalist Serge Cartwright contributed reporting.
