This article, originally published June 26th, 2019, has been updated with the tractor’s new record top speed.
In 2018, Top Gear’s anonymous test driver, The Stig, took a modified tractor called the “Track-tor” to a top speed of 87.2 mph. This was a tractor speed world record. In June, that record was shattered to pieces by tractor company JCB, Williams Advanced Engineering, and motorcycle racing legend Guy Martin, when the team went 103 mph. Last month, they went back for more.
On October 23, the team set out to break their own record. With Martin at the wheel, the tractor performed two runs in opposite directions at Elvington Airfield near York, England. According to the Guinness Book of World Records, the tractor averaged 135.19 mph, beating out its previous top speed by over 30 mph.
The record-setter uses one of JCB’s 4000-series Fastrac tractors as a base, with unnecessary items stripped out to keep weight down. The engine is a JCB-built 7.2-liter diesel straight-six making 1000 horsepower and 1844 lb-ft of torque. According to Farmers Weekly, the engine has upgraded valve seats and connecting rods, as well as auxiliary piston cooling and an external oil cooler to deal with all the heat it generates. In place of the normal CVT sits a six-speed ZF manual transmission paired with a multi-plate wet clutch. Power gets to the rear wheels via a locked differential.
Williams Advanced Engineering, the long-running F1 team behind Singer’s Dynamics and Lightweighting Study and Lotus’s future drivetrain development, helped JCB with aerodynamics to ensure the tractor would be able to overcome the immense drag of this massive piece of field equipment.
We’re curious just how much farther this tractor can be pushed.
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