There is nothing worse than getting stuck behind a tractor, especially when you are in a hurry. They take up a large part of the road too which makes overtaking them very tricky. And then there’s all that flying hay to contend with. By definition, they aren’t designed to travel at fast speeds; they are designed to haul using lots of torque - but JCB has re-written the rule book…
You would probably struggle to keep up with a straggly old farmer if he was driving this JCB Fastrac Two because at 247kph it has been certified by the Guinness World Records as the world’s fastest tractor!
No, this is not your stock farm machine – it is a technological tour de force and features a heavily-modified JCB Dieselmax 7.2-liter six-cylinder turbo diesel engine (mated to a ZF six-speed H-pattern manual truck gearbox) which produces 1,016 horses and 2,500Nm of torque! That’s a lot of power and it gets that thanks to a bigger turbo making 5.0 bar of boost along with an electrically-powered supercharger.
That’s not all; it also has a lowered body, a full suspension front and rear, Williams Advanced Engineering aerodynamic kit and countless other modifications but incredibly it uses more than 50 per cent of parts found on the standard commercially available Fastrac tractor!
JCB and its young team of engineers set the record speed run at Elvington Airfield in the UK with former bike racer Guy Martin at the wheel who smashed his previous 166.7kph record set in another modified JCB Fastrac, the One, earlier this year.
So even though tractors are used for pulling or pushing agricultural machinery or trailers, and plowing, tilling, disking, hand similar tasks don’t be surprised to see this one at the racing track!
