Record Breakers
By Andy Green
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I
n August 2006, JCB set a new record for the world’s fastest diesel
car, at an astonishing 350 mph. What was even more remarkable
was that JCB engines, more usually employed to drive diggers
at a tenth of the speed, powered it. The driver was Wg Cdr Andy
Green, current holder of the outright World Land Speed Record at
a supersonic 763 mph. In this article, he describes how he and the
JCB team helped to make diesels look fast.
The land speed record is perhaps the most exciting form of motor
sport. Most people think of F1 as the best there is, but the figures
tell a different story. The average F1 team will get perhaps 2 hundred
thousand hits on its website each month. The 2 land speed record
projects I have been involved in, by comparison, have peaked at 2-3
million hits per day. Let’s face it, F1 is a bunch of small, slow cars
going round in little circles and taking life much too seriously, whereas
straight-line racing and record-breaking has a unique fascination and
attracts some unusual and interesting teams....
I was contacted by JCB early in 2005 to find out if I would be
interested in driving a record car they were planning to build. The
car would be a ‘streamliner’, a long thin car with the wheels fully
enclosed, powered by JCB diesel engines. They seemed to have a
sensible approach to the problem (although starting with digger
engines is not the obvious choice), so I said yes. Simple as that.
Then the hard bit started...
There are 2 types of land speed record, the ‘unlimited’ record
(which is jet powered and stands at 763 mph, set by our Thrust SSC
team in 1997) and the ‘wheel driven’ record. Inevitably, without
military jets to power them and having to drive through the wheels,
‘wheel driven’ cars are much slower - the fastest ever wheel-driven
car set a record of 458 mph in 2001. Then of course there’s diesel,
which really isn’t suitable for record breaking at all (or so it has
seemed until now!) - hence the record in 2005 sat at a relatively
slow 235 mph for a diesel car and bizarrely, given its much greater
size, a somewhat faster 272 mph for a diesel truck. Although quite
slow for a land speed record, that’s still very quick for a JCB.
The first challenge was to take the JCB digger engine, the 4cylinder, 4-litre JCB ‘444’ engine built for JCB back hoes, and get some
serious power out of it. We’re not just talking about a small increase
in power here either: the stock non-turbo 444 runs at 2200 RPM
and produces a steady 80 hp and we were going to need a lot more
than that. Astonishingly, Ricardo (JCB’s engine development partner)
reckoned that, by boring out the blocks and fitting a thumping great
twin turbo assembly (with intercoolers and water injection, naturally),
they could get 750 hp and 1500 Nm of torque out of this engine.
Given that most engines struggle to produce more than 10-20%
power increases, an 800% increase has to be something of a record
in itself. Either that or they were just making it up, which was my
first thought. It gets worse though - 750 hp would only give us
around 250 mph - enough to beat the standing diesel car record, but
30 mph slower than the outright diesel (truck) speed. To have any
credibility, that’s what we were going to have to aim at. But with
an engine that would ‘only’ deliver 750 hp? At this point, Richard
Noble (previous world land speed record holder, and advisor to the
JCB project) suggested what now seems obvious: it would have to be
a 2-engined, 1500 hp car. This is not a new concept - as long ago as
1947, John Cobb pushed the land speed record to over 390 mph (a
record which stood for a remarkable 17 years) with the twin-engined
Railton Mobil Special. However, it’s not an easy concept to get right
- they started working on the Railton in the mid-1930s! Clearly, we
were going to have a lot of work to do to create what would become
known as the JCB DIESELMAX.
My first task was to help the JCB team to decide the car’s basic
layout. Options included putting the cockpit at the back of the car
with both engines in front of the driver, having the cockpit at the front
with the engines behind, or (our chosen solution primarily for crash
safety reasons) placing the cockpit between the engines. Next came
the ‘packaging’, which was done on the premise that ‘if it looks right,
it is right’ (which, let’s face it, is a design philosophy that has worked
for everything from the Spitfire to the Typhoon). The initial shape
of the bodywork was designed largely by eye, and then subjected
to detailed engineering and aerodynamic analysis to produce and
refine a shape that was both beautiful and exceptionally low-drag:
there was a possibility that we could get this car substantially above
300 mph, if the engines could deliver the required power....which
they were showing no sign of doing in early 2006. The test bed
was producing a variety of different failures, wrecking a sequence
of test engines without getting anywhere close to 750hp by April
2006, when JCB were due to launch the project to the press. Did
we lie to the press at the launch? No, of course not, not really....
but we didn’t exactly talk about all the problems either! One of the
few comforting bits was being able to point out that Audi’s 800 hp
diesel Le Man car was no longer ‘the world’s most powerful diesel
car’ - ours had 1500 hp (hopefully)!
Astonishingly, with a press launch in April (using a detailed mockup), the chassis was still a month from delivery, finally arriving in
May 2006. We then had a couple of months of frantic activity to
create a 9 m long, 2.7 tonne twin-engined car around it. I had little
to do with this stage of the project, other than routine design and
planning meetings, as the ‘day job’ (OC Ops Wing at RAF Wittering)
was keeping me busy elsewhere. Things got busy for me when we
started to test the car (at RAF Wittering - where else?). I was proud
of the way that the whole station, excited by this project on their
doorstep, provided a fantastic level of support. Everyone from station
workshops to the receptionists at the main gate did whatever they
could to help the JCB team, which was still on the wrong side of a
busy test programme with very little time (it was now mid-July and
we were due to start running in the US in mid-August - no pressure
there, then). Amazingly, the whole test programme was competed
in 10 days, getting this extraordinarily complex car (it made even
F1 cars look simple by comparison) up to 200 mph, as fast as we
could go on the 1.6 miles of Wittering’s secondary runway. Even
more encouragingly, while we had been testing the car with interim
600 hp engines, the Ricardo engine team had been furiously busy as
well. Against my earlier predictions (I’m slightly ashamed to say),
they had managed to get the race engines up to the promised 750
hp. Outstanding effort and outstanding timing! Time to pack up
the car, and the world’s 2 most specifically powerful diesel engines,
and air-freight it all to the US, where we could do some proper fast
driving.
In parallel with all the build work on the car, I had also done
some training for this high-pressure job. While driving in a straight
line might seem like an easy thing to do, it involves 2 things that
you can prepare for. The first is the long working days, in extreme
temperatures (Bonneville can get up to 50 C, and that’s in the shade,
but of course there isn’t any...), and a high degree of physical fitness
is vital. For those that haven’t tried it, take my word for it: going to a
very hot climate and working hard is easier if you get fit beforehand.
The second thing I did was spend some time at Jonathan Palmer’s
Racing School at Bedford, learning to drive. While driving race cars
on a race track might not appear to have anything to do with driving
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in a straight line, the skills required can be surprisingly similar. While
it may not show on the videos, every car moves around on the salt,
particularly under hard acceleration or crosswinds - even the JCB
DIESELMAX. If you have any doubt about that, the proof is in the
significant number of cars that spin out at speeds of up to 200 mph
or more. Most stay upright, but occasionally they dig in and roll
(something that streamliners can be particularly prone to), with
predictably uncomfortable consequences (not to be recommended
- ask Richard Hammond). A lot of drivers turn up at the start line
at Bonneville, having sometimes spent years and tens of thousands
of dollars preparing their record breaking car, without ever having
experienced a powerful car drifting sideways at high speed. It is a
frightening feeling first time it happens, and over-reacting (or perhaps
worse, not reacting at all) is likely to let the car go further out of
control. Hence going to a race track and sliding a race car through a
130 mph corner in a 4-wheel drift, and knowing that you can control
it, builds a great feeling for car-handling and a lot of confidence
for the driver - well it does for me, anyway. Applying that feel and
confidence at 200+ mph is what record driving is all about. The car
had been very well prepared, so I made sure I was also as ready as I
could be. Having finished my training and the car’s testing by late
July, it was time to clear the desk, put in a leave pass and set off
after the rest of the team.
I arrived in Wendover, Utah, close to the world-famous Bonneville
Salt Flats, on 10 August. Amazingly, after a couple of test runs on
the runway at Wendover the following day, we were ready to run on
the first day of Bonneville Speed Week, the largest and most famous
gathering of speed record cars anywhere on the planet. The perfect
place to show off this fantastic bit of British technology to a global
audience.... or so we thought. The problem with any land speed
record car is that there is so little opportunity for development and
testing, partly because there’s nowhere in the UK to test above 200
mph. On our first, eagerly anticipated run at Bonneville, with not
only the whole of the speed record community but coverage across
the world, the rear engine refused to pick up and the run was aborted
well below 200 mph. After extensive checks, we could find nothing
wrong, so back to try the following day...and the next day...and the
next day. Same problem every time, only one engine would work,
giving us a maximum speed of around 230 mph. Impressive for a
single-engined diesel car, and nearly the fastest ever, but this - let’s
face it, it was humiliation - was not what we had come for. We had
promised to deliver over 300 mph (and, although we hadn’t told the
press, we were secretly hoping for nearer to 350 mph) and we couldn’t
even get close. Time for an expletive, a beer and a rethink.
We spent Wednesday (day 5 of Speed Week) back on the runway,
trying to work out why this brilliant car was not performing like it said
on the tin. The answer turned out to be very simple. Diesel engines
require a load against which to work if the exhaust energy is going
to be high enough to spin up these huge turbos. At Bonneville, in
the hot thin air (we were over 5000 ft above sea level), this proved
to be a critical factor. As soon as one of the engines came ‘on boost’
(in other words, the turbos started to spin up and increase the power
output), that engine would take all the load. The other engine
would then get left behind and, without any load on it, the exhaust
temperature would go down again and the turbos would wind down.
We tried modifying the engines and the turbo systems, but without
success. We were now staring defeat in the face, but the engine
guys kept their nerve and moved on to some operating changes. If
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the engines needed load, I would give it to them by dragging the
brakes, which required some fairly precise left-foot braking against
the throttle. This is not easy as it might sound, especially in a 1500
hp car weighing the best part of 3 tonnes - but that was my problem.
The effect was amazing: the first time we tried it, we got by far the
quickest acceleration we had seen from the car, at around 0.6 ‘g’ the equivalent of 0-60 mph in 5 sec. Not bad for a 2.7 tonne diesel
car! Back to the Salt and let’s try it again.
The following day, I found myself strapped in to the JCB DIESELMAX
once again, at the end of the 7 mile Bonneville ‘Long Course’ with
the whole world waiting to see if the Brits were going to get it
wrong again. No we were not - having solved the problem, we were
suddenly on the end of a huge success. The car charged off the line
and achieved over 300 mph that afternoon - at last! So, having finally
got there, what was it actually like to drive the DIESELMAX at that
kind of speed? The car itself was beautifully balanced and handled
superbly: it truly was a good car that I could trust completely. Keeping
the car straight and putting down the power proved to be much easier
than I had expected, with only minor steering corrections needed
and little adjustment to the throttle. That said, I’m glad that I had
spent a lot of time practising on a race track - a small correction not
made can become a very big correction a few seconds later. I could
feel the tyres scrabbling for grip on occasion and sometimes slipping
on the softer parts of the track, while the car moved around on the
slightly uneven surface and drifted sideways with the crosswinds. Of
course, all this was against the background of the 2 loudest diesel
engines in the world, ever (at least from where I was sitting). At idle
and low speed, the vibration and noise was tremendous (so bad that
I couldn’t read the instruments properly at some stages), becoming a
howling whine when they came onto boost, always a great feeling
as the car would then take off like a scalded cat. From the start
line, the procedure was as follows. Start sequence: video on,
rear engine start, front engine start, check oil pressures,
coolant pressures, other temperatures and pressures, final
check that parachutes and fire extinguishers are ready,
hinge back the safety cover for the driver’s air switch,
select water injection on, final check of all switches
and systems, then canopy shut. Rev the engines to
2000 rpm until the exhaust temps are above 200
deg C, then
throttle
b a c k
a n d
thumbs up to the team’s race engineer. A ‘Clear to Push’ call and
I’m off, pushed up to 40 mph by the huge JCB FastTrac. I rev back
up to 2000 rpm to keep the engines warm while we accelerate and
then, at exactly 40 mph, the FastTrac backs off and I drop the car
into first gear. Full power, accelerate to 1800 rpm (about 60 mph),
then start left foot braking, gradually increasing the brake pressure
as the engines come on load. Wait for 400 deg C exhaust temps
on both engines, check the boost is starting to climb (from 0.9 bar
ambient to around 1.1 to 1.2 Bar), then brakes off and wait for the
boost to build. A brisk acceleration to around 24-2500 rpm (90 mph)
and the boost suddenly arrives in a rush. A little exhaust smoke in
the cockpit, driver’s air on to give me something to breathe. Now
driving one-handed at 100 mph, selecting the coolant pumps on
separately as each engine comes on boost. Hand straight back to
the steering wheel, just enough time to catch the rev limiter (3800
rpm, try to get 3700 for this first gear change or the engines may
overswing). Second gear, steering and handling check, systems check
on the right hand screen (all in the green), small quick corrections as
the car scrabbles for grip a little. Back to the centre screen, 150 mph,
checking the engines, looking for the mile markers to check track
postition. 170 mph, waiting for the last change light (3800 rpm)
before selecting third gear, another check of engines, systems and
handling, now over 200 mph and the car is drifting on the salt ruts
and cross winds, more small, smooth corrections to hold it straight.
Temperature in the engine cooling systems is now coming up to 90
deg C, then without warning the speed indicator goes to zero (the
GPS can’t cope: we later find out it’s a race car GPS and anything
over 360 kph (223 mph) has to be spurious, right?). Moving to the
rev counter, fourth gear, front engine is the hotter of the 2, both
temperatures limiting themselves, everything else in green. 3500
rpm in fourth (doing the sums in my head now) is around 265
mph, looking for 280-285 mph for this run. Approaching
3700 rpm, change up to fifth gear, looking for 3000
r p m . . . b u t without a speed reading, a small error
is forgivable (I tell myself), the
car is handling superbly, still
accelerating furiously and we
deserve a good result after all
this effort. 3100, 3200 rpm
- fast enough, there are the 5
mile markers, g-e-n-t-l-y throttle back, car is very stable, deploy
chute 1. A sharp tug and nothing - the chute has torn off. Exhaust
brake on, let it roll for a mile to slow down some more, then chute
2, which holds, but swings the car around slightly - the strop needs
to be longer. Car pulling minus 1g (i.e. losing 20 mph per second!),
check the engine oil pressures (as all the oil is now plastered to the
front of the oil tanks, risking oil pressure failure) - pressures are
good - clutches are also coping with the deceleration, speed rapidly
coming down through 2000 rpm in fifth (190 mph), change down
and gently wheel brake. Steer off to the left, looking for the recovery
road markers, roll to a stop as I approach them, check the exhaust
temps are well below 300 deg C, coolant pumps off, engines off,
video off. Job done. 308 mph - not quite the 285 I was aiming for,
but just this once, I don’t mind missing a target....
The rest is, quite literally, history. The following day we got another
run over 300 mph (record runs are always an average of 2 runs, to
prove that the first one wasn’t a fluke...) and we were officially the
fastest diesel car in history, at an average of 317 mph. Now, with
the Speed Week crowd going home, we had the chance to lengthen
the track to almost 12 miles and find out how fast the car would
really go. Two days of running gave us another 2 records, the last
one of which was an astonishing 350 mph average. Even this hides
the true performance of the car, as the tyres were limited to around
350 mph. The peak speed of the car on the final day was over 360
mph, in fifth gear (I never used sixth), with me throttling back to
just over half throttle to stop it accelerating. Even more remarkably,
we hadn’t actually opened the engines up to the full 750 hp each,
because it wasn’t needed. This was one seriously fast car. Now we
just need some faster tyres to go back and find out what a 400 mph
diesel car looks like...
So, whether or not the JCB team goes back this year, what is
happening in this most exciting of motorsports? There are several
challengers for Thrust SSC’s supersonic record. The fastest Australian
on earth, Rosco McGlashan, has bought himself a 150 000 lb thrust
rocket motor (that’s VERY big) and is building a car for it (www.
aussieinvader.com). While equally unsubtle, the North American
Eagle (a 1960’s F-104 Starfighter with the wings cut off and high
speed wheels bolted on) is already testing, and hopes to go much
faster this year (www.landspeed.com). The most likely contender,
though, is Steve Fossett (first man to fly a balloon, and later first to
fly an aircraft, non-stop round the world) who has bought a previous
US challenger with a claimed 800 mph top speed, which he is hoping
to achieve this summer. Finally, at a more sedate pace, a British team
is hoping to run a steam-powered car called ‘Inspiration’ at over 200
mph to smash the existing steam record of 127 mph (which has stood
since 1906, so it’s about time it was broken: www.steamcar.co.uk).
Meanwhile, a couple of final thoughts on what the DIESELMAX
achieved in 2006. JCB showed a lot of courage in taking up a challenge
that they knew very little about; we could all learn something from
their example. Good engines, too! I was lucky enough to be part
of a really terrific team of people that did something remarkable
and loved doing it. They’re probably ruined forever now - nothing
else will be quite the same after their first taste of ‘salt fever’, and
certainly not the small, slow cars going round in circles. It was also
a huge, bold statement on a global stage about the excellence of
British engineering. Then of course there’s all the remaining potential
of the car to explore, one day, hopefully. Overall, for both JCB and
the DIESELMAX team, the 2006 campaign was a triumph. Well done
JCB and well done British Engineering!
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