British driver who broke sound barrier sets new record in hydrogen-powered car | UK News

A British driver, who remains the only person to break the sound barrier in a car, has set another world record, this time in a hydrogen-powered vehicle. 

Andy Green, a 64-year-old retired Royal Air Force pilot, reached a speed of 406.32mph – measured as an average from two runs – on Utah‘s famous Bonneville Salt Flats in a car powered by two hydrogen internal combustion engines with a combined 1,600 horsepower.

In doing so, he set the record for that vehicle category, according to the Federation Internationale de l’Automobile, the international governing body of motor sports.

The 32ft (9.75m) Hydromax car, engineered by British manufacturer JCB, used engines adapted from those used in the company’s machinery, mixing pressurised hydrogen gas with air and igniting it to create bursts of power.

The new record easily surpassed the previous hydrogen combustion world record of 185.5mph.

‘The fuel of the future’

After the runs, Mr Green said it was “magic” to be able showcase the technology, hailing hydrogen as “the fuel of the future”.

Mr Green’s latest feat, witnessed by JCB staff members and reporters watching through cameras and binoculars, did not come close to toppling the overall land-speed record, which he set with jet power in 1997, breaking the sound barrier at a speed of 763.035mph.

It did, however, beat the land-speed record for a diesel-powered car – 350.092mph – which he set at the Bonneville Salt Flats in 2006.

Mr Green said that the temperature inside the car on Tuesday was “probably a little hotter” than in the jet-powered vehicle from 1997, with temperatures routinely exceeding 50C (122F).

But he insisted he had become accustomed to such heat having “been training four months for that, both training in the gym and actually just getting used to it with hot baths”.

Read more from Sky News:
Olympic swimmer faces speeding trial
Man shot dead near Clapham pub

‘Best racing surface in the world’

The Bonneville Salt Flats, a remnant of a prehistoric lake bed, are situated about 100 miles (160km) west of Salt Lake City and sit atop a shallow aquifer – an underground layer of water-bearing rock, gravel, sand, or silt – that cools the tyres.

The low-friction surface and dry desert air are conducive to speed and have attracted drivers since the first race there in 1914.

Mr Green, who described the flats as “the best racing surface in the world”, added: “It looks like snow, and it behaves a bit like packed snow – it is surprisingly slippery.”