
The JCB Dieselmax is a
streamliner
A streamliner is a vehicle incorporating streamlining in a shape providing reduced air resistance. The term is applied to high-speed railway trainsets of the 1930s to 1950s, and to their successor " bullet trains". Less commonly, the term i ...
car designed for the purpose of breaking the
land speed record
The land speed record (LSR) or absolute land speed record is the highest speed achieved by a person using a vehicle on land. By a 1964 agreement between the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) and Fédération Internationale de M ...
for a
diesel-engined vehicle.
The car was built for
JCB, a British multinational equipment company. As of 2018, the car holds the world diesel-powered land speed record, having been driven to over by Wing Commander
Andy Green in 2006.
Design
The car is powered by two specially-tuned versions of the production JCB444
powerplant, developing up to each (over five times the power output of the production version with 90 psi (6 bar) of boost) and featuring four cylinders and 5 litres of displacement, accompanied by
two stage turbochargers,
intercooler
An intercooler is a heat exchanger used to cool a gas after compression. Often found in turbocharged engines, intercoolers are also used in air compressors, air conditioners, refrigeration and gas turbines.
Internal combustion engines
Mo ...
and
aftercooler. One of the dual engines drives the front wheels while the other drives the rear.
Each engine is rev-limited to 3800 rpm.
As the size of the car prohibited meaningful
wind tunnel
A wind tunnel is "an apparatus for producing a controlled stream of air for conducting aerodynamic experiments". The experiment is conducted in the test section of the wind tunnel and a complete tunnel configuration includes air ducting to and f ...
testing, the
streamlined
Streamlines, streaklines and pathlines are field lines in a fluid flow.
They differ only when the flow changes with time, that is, when the flow is not steady flow, steady.
Considering a velocity vector field in three-dimensional space in the f ...
shape of the car was refined entirely through the use of
computational fluid dynamics
Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) is a branch of fluid mechanics that uses numerical analysis and data structures to analyze and solve problems that involve fluid dynamics, fluid flows. Computers are used to perform the calculations required ...
by
MIRA Ltd
HORIBA MIRA Ltd. (formerly the Motor Industry Research Association) is an automotive engineering and development consultancy company headquartered near Nuneaton, Warwickshire, United Kingdom. It provides product engineering, research, testing, ...
, which has enabled the car to obtain a very low
coefficient of drag of only 0.147 and a C
dA value (drag coefficient × frontal area) of only 0.129 m
2. The fuel tank, which holds only 9 litres (2.38 U.S. gallons), is located directly behind the carbon fiber cockpit. The fully laden weight of the vehicle, including fuel, oil, ice, water coolant and the driver, is slightly less than 2,700 kg.
The chassis was designed and built by Coventry-based engineering company
Visioneering for
JCB, with engine development undertaken by Sussex-based
Ricardo. The electrical system for the vehicle was supplied by
R&D Vehicle Systems Ltd under contract to Visioneering.
Ron Ayers led work on the aerodynamics, having previously worked on the
ThrustSSC
ThrustSSC, Thrust SSC or Thrust SuperSonic Car is a British jet car developed by Richard Noble, Glynne Bowsher, Ron Ayers, and Jeremy Bliss. Thrust SSC holds the world land speed record, set on 15 October 1997, and piloted by Andy Gree ...
land speed record car.
During the 2006
Bonneville Speed Week and subsequent
FIA record runs, the car was driven by
Andy Green, a serving
RAF Officer who previously broke, and still holds, the absolute land speed record with
ThrustSSC
ThrustSSC, Thrust SSC or Thrust SuperSonic Car is a British jet car developed by Richard Noble, Glynne Bowsher, Ron Ayers, and Jeremy Bliss. Thrust SSC holds the world land speed record, set on 15 October 1997, and piloted by Andy Gree ...
.
Performance
The car began initial testing on 20 July 2006 on the runway at
RAF Wittering
Royal Air Force Wittering or more simply RAF Wittering is a Royal Air Force station within the unitary authority area of Peterborough, Cambridgeshire and the unitary authority area of North Northamptonshire. Although Stamford in Lincolnshire ...
with the lower-power version of the JCB444 engine, the team slowly ramping up the speed to prove the chassis and engines. They eventually achieved a speed of over on 30 July 2006. Two days later, the car was disassembled ready to be flown to
Wendover Airport,
Utah
Utah is a landlocked state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is one of the Four Corners states, sharing a border with Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico. It also borders Wyoming to the northea ...
, on the 8th of August. On 13 August 2006, after re-assembling and re-testing the car, the Dieselmax made its first official run on the
Bonneville Salt Flats as part of
Speed Week, eventually attaining an average speed of to take the SCTA-BNI event record for an 'AA/DS' Diesel Streamliner.
On 22 August 2006, after being re-fitted with 'LSR' versions of the JCB444 engines,
the JCB Dieselmax car broke the official FIA diesel engine land speed record, attaining a speed of . 24 hours later the JCB Dieselmax car broke its own record, achieving a speed of over a distance of 1 mile on 23 August 2006.
Before attaining these speeds, the Dieselmax was pushed from behind, by a
JCB Fastrac, until it hit where it engaged first gear.
Before the JCB Dieselmax records, the diesel land speed record was , set by American Virgil Snyder, in the Thermo King streamliner on 25 August 1973.
Future
In a live interview from Utah on
BBC News
BBC News is an operational business division of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs in the UK and around the world. The department is the world's largest broad ...
, Green said that the car was not running at its full potential, due to problems finding suitable tires and that this speed was achieved while the car was still in fifth gear (the car has six). He also reported that the vehicle traveled on about a U.S. gallon (3.8 L) of fuel. The fuel tank holds just 9 L while the ice tank, used for cooling, holds 180 L.
In 2016 a ten-year anniversary celebration was held, where Lord Bamford expressed regret that the record had not been beaten and indicated that a fresh attempt could be made if the JCB record was broken.
Although JCB have not made any official statements on the subject of a return to Bonneville, JCB Group Engineering Director Tim Leverton has hinted that they are currently studying the development of tires that would allow them to overcome the nominal 'safety limit' they had placed upon their current Goodyear units.
See also
*
List of vehicle speed records
References
External links
JCB Dieselmax Official Websitearchived pages
on Archive.org*
BBC News
BBC News is an operational business division of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs in the UK and around the world. The department is the world's largest broad ...
,
Dieselmax breaks diesel speed record'
The engineering behind Dieselmax, ''Ingenia'' Magazine, September 2007
RDVS - Dieselmax electrical system supplier
{{DEFAULTSORT:Jcb Dieselmax
Wheel-driven land speed record cars
JCB (company)
Streamliner cars