Ricardo congratulates JCB on new British tractor speed record

JCB’s Fastrac Tractor has stormed to a new British speed record for a tractor, powered by a variant of the Derbyshire manufactured 7.2 litre, 6-cylinder Dieselmax engine co-developed by JCB with Ricardo.

The aerodynamically enhanced JCB Fastrac high-speed tractor notched up 103.6mph at Elvington Airfield, near York, with TV presenter and engineering guru Guy Martin behind the wheel – smashing the previous 87.27mph record set in March 2018 by Top Gear’s Track-Tor. The team of engineers that has been working on the project over the past few months was praised by JCB Chairman Lord Bamford for their “amazing achievement.”

The special variant of the 7.2 litre, 6-cylinder DieselMax engine developed by Ricardo is capable of delivering up to 1,000hp and 2,500Nm of torque. JCB and Ricardo engineers were able to apply know-how gained from their involvement in the previous Dieselmax streamliner, along with new technologies such as electric supercharging, to achieve these high-performance levels. Ricardo also used its state-of-the-art VR CFD visualisation techniques to help JCB enhance the Fastrac aerodynamics.
 
JCB is no stranger to land speed records. In 2006, its Dieselmax streamliner car set a new diesel land speed record when it reached 350.092mph on Bonneville Salt Flats in the USA, using two 750hp JCB444-LSR DieselMax engines developed by Ricardo. The record still stands today.
 
 “We are proud of our involvement in the development of the JCB Dieselmax engine that powered the achievement of this record,” said Matt Beasley, Director – Application Engineering. “Our links with JCB go back to the diesel land speed record in 2006 and we offer them our warmest congratulations on this latest success.”