Guy Martin drives JCB tractor to new speed record on airfield near York

Guy Martin, pictured next to the JCB Fastrac tractor he drove to a new British speed record near York.

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The previous record of 87.27mph, set in March last year by Top Gear's Track-Tor, was smashed by Mr Martin who drove a specially engineered JCB Fastrac tractor and notched up a top speed of 103.6mph.

The record-breaking speed was set at Elvington Airfield, near York, yesterday.

Mr Martin said: “It had been a great day with the JCB at Elvington, proper job with some right proper engineers. She felt rock steady on the runway, job’s a peach.”

A team of JCB engineers have been working on the secret project to develop the tractor over the past few months.

The speed challenge was held at Elvington Airfield near York.

Based on the Staffordshire-based JCB's Fastrac farm tractor, the record-breaking tractor is powered by a 7.2 litre, six-cylinder engine produced at its factory in Derbyshire. Capable of delivering 1,000hp and 2,500Nm of torque, the Fastrac had its aerodynamics enhanced with the help of Williams Advanced Engineering.

JCB chairman Lord Bamford praised their “amazing achievement", saying: “We’ve long harboured a dream to attempt a speed record with the Fastrac and the whole team has worked tirelessly to achieve this amazing result.

"I’m extremely proud of what they have achieved in such a short space of time. It is British engineering at its best and it really does highlight the skills and innovation we have in our engineering team. They have done a truly fantastic job.”

It was Lord Bamford’s idea to develop a tractor which had a high road speed and was capable of field work and the new speed record came exactly 28 years to the day since the first Fastrac production model rolled off the line.

JCB has a history of setting land speed records. In 2006, its DieselMax streamliner set a new diesel land speed record when it reached 350.092mph on Bonneville Salt Flats in the US, using two JCB DieselMax engines. The record still stands.