13 March 2007

JCB DIESELMAX Laps Central London to Celebrate Dewar Trophy Award

The Royal Automobile Club Dewar Trophy was presented to the team that captured the world diesel land speed record for Britain at a special lunch at the Pall Mall Clubhouse. JCB Chairman Sir Anthony Bamford collected the 100-year-old silver trophy, which was awarded to recognise the team’s outstanding British technical achievement in the automotive world.

To form part of the Dewar Trophy celebration, the JCB DIELSELMAX Streamliner was transported into Central London for a special photocall with the world’s fastest man on four wheels, Wing Commander Andy Green OBE, before setting off from Hyde Park along Piccadilly, around Piccadilly Circus and down Haymarket before completing a ‘drive past’ the Royal Automobile Club on Pall Mall.

Sir Anthony Bamford was quick to praise all of the people involved in the project, which was successfully completed in a very short time period.

Sir Anthony Bamford: "First of all I'd like to thank the Technical Committee of the Royal Automobile Club, we are really very honoured to receive such a trophy. I had absolutely no idea it was going to be so big. Many people may think that winning a record like this was easy, but the only easy part was thinking up the idea in the first place.”

“It was really a very tense time and we were undertaking an engineering project that we as a company had never done before,” Sir Anthony continued. “However we had the help of a very fine team of people. It could have gone wrong right up to our last run. However we solved the problems and it all worked. We achieved what we set out to do and set a new world record. This award means a lot to me and to our company and I'd like to thank everyone who was involved in the project, which is not only great showcase for JCB, but for British Engineering as well."

The 2006 Royal Automobile Club Simms Medal was also presented at the Dewar Trophy Lunch with Steve Tremble, Sales and Marketing Director for Zytek Group, collecting the awrd on behalf of Bill Gibson who was unfortunately taken ill and couldn’t be at the lunch in person.

ENDS

Editors' notes

DEWAR TROPHY
The Dewar Trophy is awarded for outstanding British technical achievement in the automotive world. The Royal Automobile Club has presented the 57cm high silver trophy on just 38 previous occasions since 1906 when the achievements have met the stringent standards required by the Dewar Trophy Committee. Previous winners include Rolls-Royce, Jaguar and Dunlop, with Ricardo plc winning in 2005 for its work in the development of the Dual Clutch Transmission in the Bugatti Veyron.