The Race to Set a Land Speed Record With a Hydrogen Car
On August 11, 2026, a driver named Andy Green went to a huge, flat salt desert in Utah called the Bonneville Salt Flats to try to set a new land speed record in a car powered by hydrogen. Green is a retired Royal Air Force fighter pilot who, back in 1997, became the first person to drive a car faster than the speed of sound. The car he drove this time is called the JCB Hydromax. It is 32 feet (9.75 meters) long, runs on two hydrogen engines with a combined 1,600 horsepower, and was built by a British construction equipment company called JCB. The Guardian
Green, who is 64, wanted to beat two records: one for hydrogen-powered cars at 185.5 mph (298.5 km/h) and one for electric cars at 341.3 mph (549.2 km/h). In practice runs the week before, he reached 368.347 mph (592.797 km/h), which was faster than both of those targets, but the speed did not count as an official record yet.
For a speed to become an official record, an organization called the FIA (short for Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile) has to watch the run and approve the timing equipment. The FIA is the international governing body for motor sports. Without FIA observers present, the practice speeds stay unofficial.
Green has a long history at Bonneville. In 2006, he set the land speed record for a diesel-powered car at 350.092 mph (563.4 km/h) on the same salt flats. That record came after his most famous drive: in 1997, using a car with two jet engines at Nevada's Black Rock Desert, he set the overall land speed record of 763.035 mph (1,227.98 km/h) and became the first driver to go faster than Mach 1, which is the speed of sound, on land.
The Hydromax project does two things for JCB at once. The company has spent more than $134 million developing hydrogen engine technology, and it says these engines produce no carbon dioxide from the tailpipe. JCB has also agreed to buy green hydrogen, which is hydrogen made using renewable energy like wind or solar. At the car's unveiling in May, JCB chair Anthony Bamford said "a land speed project is the perfect way to prove hydrogen's seriousness for emissions." The Guardian
Building the Hydromax has been a step-by-step process. In testing at Bonneville in June 2026, the car reached 177 mph in third gear, close to the limit for the distance available on the salt at that time, according to Reuters. The jump from 177 mph in June to 368.347 mph in practice a few weeks later means the team made major changes to the car's setup and gearing in between.
The broader context here is a competition among clean-energy technologies for heavy-duty and high-performance vehicles. Hydrogen internal combustion engines work by burning hydrogen inside the engine, similar to how a normal car engine burns gasoline. They produce water vapor and some nitrogen oxides but no carbon dioxide. This is different from hydrogen fuel cells, which use a chemical reaction to make electricity that powers electric motors. JCB is betting that burning hydrogen can deliver the power and quick refueling that heavy equipment and record-breaking cars need, without the heavy batteries that electric vehicles require — think of it like filling up a gas tank rather than waiting for a phone to charge.
For Green, this attempt brings him back to the same place where he set his diesel record twenty years ago. The path from jet engines in 1997, to diesel in 2006, to hydrogen in 2026 reflects how the auto industry's goals have shifted over time from pure speed to speed that also pays attention to emissions. The FIA's involvement means any record set on August 11 will be held to the same strict standards as Green's earlier achievements.
Whether the Hydromax can turn its practice speeds into an official record depends on conditions at Bonneville, where the quality of the salt surface and the weather can change quickly. The FIA requires two runs in opposite directions within a set time window, and the speeds are averaged to account for wind helping or slowing the car. Green and the JCB team will need the salt and the weather to cooperate as much as the machinery does.
