JCB Hydromax, a British vehicle powered by hydrogen, sets a new world record for land speed.

Andy Green, a former?fighter?pilot, set the world land speed record?for a hydrogen-powered vehicle at the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah on?Tuesday.

The Briton, already the outright land speed record holder, set his latest first at the wheel of a JCB Hydromax vehicle that harnessed the power of two production-based digger engines to reach a combined speed over two runs of 406.320mph/653.909kph.

The International Automobile Federation's (FIA) Land Speed Records Commission must ratify the record.

Green, then 63 years old, achieved a land speed record of 763.035 miles per hour (1,227.985 km/h) with the jet-engined thrust SSC in 1997.

He ran in both directions over a mile distance - within an hour - and the average speed was used to establish the record. The first run was 400.623 mph and the second 412.135.

The BMW H2R set the previous FIA-official record for hydrogen internal combustion at 185.5 mph in 2004. The JCB Hydromax has also exceeded the 303 mph mark for hydrogen fuel cells.

Green set a diesel speed record of 350.092 mph in the same salt flats twenty years ago, and also drove the JCB Dieselmax car.

Green said, "Bonneville has been the spiritual home of World Land Speed Records for centuries and Hydromax just wrote itself into this history." The car was fast, powerful, stable and strong. "To set a world record using hydrogen 20 years after Dieselmax is a great privilege."

JCB's fastest tractor, which can reach 135 mph, and who partners the Aston Martin Formula One Team, began a project in June 2025, with Prodrive Ricardo, and Xtrac.

The company invested $100 million ($135,03 million) in developing?hydrogen powered internal combustion engines. It is now using the Hydromax project to market?the green engined diggers that are rolling off production lines.

The record-breaking run was made just before JCB opened a $500 million factory to produce machines for the U.S.

(source: Reuters)