Vrooom....

[sbisson]

The world's fastest diesel is a JCB.

Not the familiar yellow digger, though the colour is still the same, this is a pencil-thin streamlined vehicle, designed to break records...

A car built by JCB has broken the diesel engine land speed record after reaching 328.767mph (529km/h).

A spokesman for JCB Dieselmax said the vehicle attained the average speed during two runs in Utah, USA.

The team received official confirmation from the Federation Internationale de l'Automobile which oversaw the record bid on Tuesday.

An impressive feat - especially if you've ever been stuck behind a yellow digger as it crawls through a country lane!

Here's the official site.

Comments

[ajshepherd.livejournal.com]

That is so cool. Major applause to JCB for doing that!

[ex-the-major316.livejournal.com]

So really incredibly cool!

[alex-holden.livejournal.com]

The engines are interesting - they've taken a standard four cylinder 4.4 litre JCB digger engine and boosted the hell out of it - it produces five times the power output (750BHP peak) but only lasts two hours. And it has two of them.

Their claim of "the first car designed entirely by computer" seems slightly bizarre unless they've been hiding a high-level AI.

[arwel-p.livejournal.com]

And today they've broken their own record - 350.092 mph! (Reuters).