Getting to spend a few days on the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah watching Andy Green and the JCB Hydromax team set a new 406.320mph land speed record for a hydrogen-powered vehicle was a real privilege – and it provided plenty of takeaways.
First, land speed records are incredibly cool, one of the few areas of motorsport that isn’t overburdened by regulations and still encourages boundary pushing. Second, Bonneville is an incredible place, simultaneously flat, featureless and other-worldly yet also totally alive and constantly changing. And third, watching land speed records live is amazing but isn’t the easiest of spectating experiences because the car is going straight and you have to stand reaallllly far away.
