JCB FASTRAC SPEED RECORD
USING A PRODUCTION TRACTOR AS A STARTING POINT, AND
MODIFYING IT USING ONLY STANDARD PARTS, JCB BROKE
THE UK TRACTOR SPEED RECORD EARLIER THIS YEAR NOW
ENGINEERS HAVE THEIR SIGHTS SET ON THE WORLD TITLE
iVTInternational.com September 2019 29
Super-fast tractors used to be such
an uncommon sight that the world
record speed of 67.677mph – set by
legendary racing driver Ab Jenkins on
an Allis Chalmers in 1935 – stood for 80
years. But in the past ve years setting
tractor records has become all the rage
and Jenkins’ record has been surpassed
several times. On September 20, this
year JCB set a new British record with
a specially redesigned model of its
Fastrac tractor and intends to also
overhaul the world record time. With
motorcycle racer Guy Martin at the
wheel, the 7.2 litre, six-cylinder JCB
Fastrac reached an average speed of
103.6mph at Elvington Air eld, near
York, easily beating the 87mph record
set by the Top G ear team last year.
Tim Burnhope, chief innovation and
growth o cer, said the team behind the
record would continue to make
improvements and an announcement
would be made as soon as they were
ready to beat the fastest time of
108.5mph, which was set by a modi ed
Allis Chalmers tractor known as
e Pioneer last October at the
Arkansas 1 Mile Challenge.
But JCB is not simply aiming to reach
record speeds, whatever the cost, the
company wants to raise the speed bar
using genuine agricultural tractors,
rather than heavily modi ed vehicles.
“ e Allis Chalmers that broke the
record in the US didn’t look much like
a production tractor to me and I would
describe the To p G e a r tractor that set
a British record as an ‘interesting
product’. We wanted our Fastrac to be
more representative of the class it is
working in,” says Burnhope.
/iVTInternational.com
