Tag Archives: world record

JCB Hydromax sets a new hydrogen land speed record at 406.320 mph

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A pair of hydrogen-powered engines developed for construction machinery has just been pushed into territory normally reserved for purpose-built speed machines. JCB’s Hydromax has reached an astonishing 406.320 mph (653.6 km/h) at Utah’s Bonneville Salt Flats, becoming the fastest hydrogen-powered vehicle of any kind and setting a new world land speed record for a hydrogen internal-combustion car.

The 32-foot-long streamliner is powered by two production-based JCB hydrogen combustion engines, each tuned to produce 800 horsepower for a combined 1,600 bhp. Rather than using hydrogen in a fuel cell to generate electricity, Hydromax burns hydrogen directly in its internal-combustion engines. The engines are manufactured at JCB’s factory in Foston, Derbyshire, and are based on the same production engines powering JCB machines in the UK.

Designer: JCB

Its record-setting run was completed under FIA rules, requiring two passes in opposite directions within an hour. Driven by Wing Commander Andy Green OBE, Hydromax recorded 400.623 mph on its first run and 412.135 mph on the return, producing the official average of 406.320 mph. The result comfortably surpassed the previous FIA-officiated hydrogen internal-combustion record of 185.5 mph, set by the BMW H2R in 2004. It also moved beyond the 303 mph hydrogen fuel-cell record, making Hydromax the fastest hydrogen-powered vehicle in history. The record remains subject to formal FIA ratification.

According to project lead, JCB Engineering Director Ryan Ballard, “This record belongs to the engineering team which took a hydrogen digger engine and made it the fastest of its kind on earth. This has been an amazing challenge from the outset, with it being set in February last year. We came here fully prepared, and the car delivered.”

The achievement follows an earlier milestone at the 2026 Bonneville Speed Week, where Hydromax averaged 368.347 mph over two runs to establish an SCTA record in the Blown Gas Streamliner class. Its first run reached 367.141 mph, followed by 369.554 mph on the return. That result surpassed the previous 348.342 mph class benchmark, while giving JCB an important test of the car before its FIA attempt.

Much of the car’s engineering focuses on making extreme speed controllable. Hydromax drives all four wheels through twin transmissions and clutches, while its body was shaped around aerodynamic efficiency and stability. JCB says the suspension, traction control, aerodynamics and camera placement were all stress- and simulation-tested before the attempt. Prodrive handled the car build, Ricardo worked on engine tuning and Xtrac supplied the transmission expertise.

The record also carries a strong sense of continuity for JCB. Exactly 20 years after Andy Green drove the JCB Dieselmax to a 350.092 mph diesel land speed record at Bonneville, he has returned to the same salt flats to establish an even faster mark using hydrogen. The Hydromax project was conceived in 2025 as a demonstration of JCB’s hydrogen combustion technology, turning engines developed for working machines into a record-breaking powertrain.

 

The post JCB Hydromax sets a new hydrogen land speed record at 406.320 mph first appeared on Yanko Design.

13-Year Old Becomes First Human To Beat Tetris On NES

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13-year-old gaming streamer Blue Scuti has become the first human to beat the classic Tetris game on the Nintendo Entertainment System, almost 35 years after its release. Previously, the game had only been beaten by artificial intelligence. Blue achieved the feat during a semi-final round of the Classic Tetris World Championship (CTWC) and set three world records in the process: the highest overall score (6,850,560), the highest level achieved (Level 157), and the most total number of lines (1,511). Wow!

The game is “beat” when it crashes, and the screen freezes. For the first two decades of the game’s existence, it was believed that progress past level 29 was impossible because the pieces are falling so fast that holding left or right will not move a piece all the way to one side or the other before it reaches the bottom. That led gamers to start getting creative with how they used their controllers.

According to Polygon, Blue’s strategy “was a culmination of the technique that younger players have been developing in recent years. These newer strategies, like ‘hypertapping’ and later ‘rolling,’ emerged in 2016 and 2020 respectively, allowing players to operate the NES controller even faster than the buttons by tapping the underside of the controller.” I’ve seen players doing that in videos and wondered what was happening! That explains it. Me? I’m lucky to hit the right button at all, let alone at lightning speed.

[via BoingBoing and Polygon]

1,499 Drones Recreate Gigantic Nutcracker Ballet, Set World Records

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Orchestrated by drone show performance company Sky Elements, a recent recreation of characters from The Nutcracker ballet successfully set two new Guinness World Records. The show used 1,499 choreographed drones flying above the Birdville Fine Arts and Athletic Complex in North Richland Hills, Texas, to achieve the feat, and it must have been a sight to behold in real life. At least there’s a video for those of us who live behind computer screens.

The first record was for the largest aerial display of a fictional character using drones, awarded for a giant Nutcracker stretching 700 feet into the night sky. The second was for the largest aerial image formed by drones, for an absolutely massive picture of a Christmas tree in front of a window with snow falling behind it. Maybe it’s true what they say after all: everything IS bigger in Texas.

Will the records get beaten in the coming year? Almost certainly. As a matter of fact, if I had an army of drones, I would beat them myself. But I don’t even have a single drone, so their records are probably safe from me, provided 2,000 drones don’t fall off the back of a truck in front of my house.

[via TechEBlog]