14 August 2006

BONNEVILLE SALT FLATS - Utah

Time: 20:10 (US)

Temperature: 34°C

Location: Bonneville Salt Flats, Utah

Monday morning at Bonneville Speed Week dawned with the JCB DIESELMAX being rolled out of the trailer and straight into the queue of cars raring for an early run.

Overnight the long course had been moved across a short distance to fresh salt. A one hour delay, while the safety crew dealt with a high speed accident, was a reminder of the dangers of the tremendous speeds seen at Bonneville.

11.12 Run 28 Andy Green accelerated to hit 226mph, the car’s fastest ever run, but again the rear turbo failed to provide any useful boost pressure. A quick decision to take the car back to Wendover airfield saw the streamliner, without its much admired bodywork, make eight runs in 75 minutes as the team checked the data methodically after each run then turned the car around to run again.

The aim was to prove that there was nothing fundamentally wrong with the rear engine by running it with the front engine disengaged. The moment the rear engine was having to do all the work of powering the car it immediately produced over 4 bar pressure- exactly the result the team wanted to see.

For the last two runs the front engine was re-connected and the original problem, of the rear engine not going on to turbo boost, re-appeared. For the engineers it was invaluable to have shown that the fault could be re-created.

With a solution developed the car will run at the airfield in the morning before returning to the Slat Flats with the aim of beating today’s speed.