Guy Martin has added another record to his long list of accolades. As if owning the world record for the fastest speed on a gravity-powered snow sled and the highest speed on a Wall of Death aren’t impressive enough, the British racer and all-around crazy man has added the world record for driving the world’s fastest modified tractor to his long list of accolades.
Martin’s latest triumph came alongside the JCB Fastrac Two, which hit a top speed of 153.7 mph, destroying the previous record of 103.6 mph that was also set by Martin a little over four months ago.
The record-breaking tractor comes by way of British engineering firm JCB. It’s called the Fastrac Two, though it is largely based on the commercially available high-speed Gastric agricultural tractor. It must be pointed out, though, that the Fastrac Two is a heavily modified version of the tractor. It comes with a more streamlined body — the front bumper, side panniers, rear diffuser, and underbody pan were all modified — that helped shed 10 percent off the tractor’s overall weight. Part of that weight loss could also be attributed to the tractor’s new aluminum hood.
With all the modifications in place, it was on Guy Martin to take the Fastrac Two and attempt to break the world record that was set, not so coincidentally, by Martin himself and the Fastrac One back in June on the Elvington Airfield in the U.K. The former Royal Air Force (RAF) station boasts a three-kilometer (1.86 miles) runway and it was on this very same runway that Martin set the previous record with the Fastrac One, clocking in a top speed of 103.6 mph.
More than four months after setting that record, Martin and JCB returned to Elvington Airfield intending to break the four-month-old record. In short order, Martin not only succeeded in breaking his own record, but with all that power at his disposal, he flat-out obliterated his old record with an average top speed of 135.191 mph.
Unlike some records these days that have become causes for controversy, the Fastrac Two’s record-breaking top speed — and the title of the fastest tractor (modified) in the world — is completely legitimate. A group of representatives from the Guinness Book of World Records was on-hand to personally vet the veracity and authenticity of Martin’s top speed times.
Even the showman didn’t mince his words talking about the experience of adding another world record to his growing list of records. "There are some good folk(s) there and they said about this idea of building the world's fastest tractor,” Martin told the Guinness World Records. “So I said 'if you want it piloting give us a shout' and that’s where it came about.”