JCB DieselMax makes first run

First roll successful, beats thunderstorm

By PH Staff / Tuesday, 25 July 2006 / Loading comments

The JCB DieselMax made its all-important first run on Saturday, four days after the nine metre-long streamliner arrived at RAF Wittering, near Peterborough, for trials and only minutes before a thunderstorm flooded the runway.

Cleared to run by the technical team, the naked machine -- devoid of its sleek yellow bodywork -- was moved out of the temporary workshop and positioned to drive down the 1.6 mile runway, normally in use by RAF Harriers. A JCB Fastrac high speed tractor pushed the JCB DieselMax to 30mph before Andy Green pulled the F1-style paddle-shift, selected a gear and then powered to 61mph.

As Green got a hint of power of the 1,500bhp, machine engineers checked every aspect of the car's performance on their telemetry. “The first run showed how well the car has been put together, it is really smooth and even on alight throttle it already feels very quick,” the world’s fastest man enthused.

Project director Dr Tim Leverton said: “Seeing the car run for the very first was a special moment for the whole team. The thrill was when Andy put it in third gear and accelerated hard. This is the real start of our testing which is a critical part of the record attempt. There is a lot of hard work ahead but we are now on our way.”

Three runs should have been possible according to Project Chief Designer John Piper, but a tremendous thunderstorm interrupted “play”.

After the run Piper explained his satisfaction: “ What's most pleasing is that Andy says the car drives well and that it is easy to drive. Now I'm keen to get more miles on the car, as it's brand new and we need to shake it down.”

Since its arrival at RAF Wittering, the team has had little down time and has worked in unbearable summer temperatures to prepare the JCB DieselMax for its gruelling testing schedule before heading out to the world famous Bonneville Salt Flats in August.

The test sessions, which will run until early August, will enable the race team to validate the components and systems of the JCB DieselMax, which boasts two JCB444-LSR turbo-charged diesel engines, each producing 750bhp and 1,100lb-ft of torque. The final drive ratio has been specially calibrated to suit the characteristics of the long Wittering runway where the streamliner is expected to reach 200mph during testing.