Perhaps a tractor isn’t at the top of your list when contemplating seriously fast vehicles. Yet, as sure as the sun will rise, Guy Martin will set any speed record he can—in any vehicle he can, up to and including a tricked-out tractor. Beating the Stig’s previous record set in March 2018 on Top Gear’s Track-Tor was probably just the cherry on top of the speedy yellow sundae.
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The record-setting official speed was achieved in a heavily modified JCB Fastrac unit, and traveled at 103.6 mph. By comparison, the previous record held by the Stig-driven Track-Tor was just a walk in the park at 87.27 mph. Although we know this new record has been set, because the attempt was being filmed for an upcoming channel 4 documentary that will air later in 2019, there has been no official video released. For now, there’s just a blurry and far-away record recorded by Farmers Weekly, which was on hand to report on the event.
Elvington Airfield near York in England has a 1.8-mile-long runway, which is the longest in the country according to Farmers Weekly. After ditching unnecessary weight and making hefty performance modifications, the end result is capable of putting out 1,000hp and 2,500Nm of torque at 3,500rpm. However, Farmers Weekly also stated that the power had to be dialed down a bit to achieve the desired result during the actual test run.
The full setup relies on both a supercharger and a turbocharger, set up to limit turbo lag as much as possible. Should you be looking to modify your tractor for racing purposes, you can find a much more detailed listing of the exact modifications done to this machine at Farmers Weekly. Hopefully, that documentary on the build will hit Netflix or another streaming service in the foreseeable future for those of us out in the rest of the world.
Sources: Farmers Weekly, JCB