I don’t really envy or idolize many people in the world. Jesse James is the definite exception to the rule. If you have been living under a rock for the past 10 years, he owns the custom bike shop West Coast Choppers. He was the star of Monster Garage, where he and a weekly team of crazy builders attempted to build some one of a kind machines like a flying Panoz race car. And he’s married to Sandra Bullock. He isn’t exactly what I would call “green”, especially after last week’s episode of Jesse James Is A Dead Man, where Jesse was ripping around the figure 8 track.

Seems the idea of breaking the land speed record for hydrogen cars has been on Jesse’s mind for some time now. Jesse blew past the current record of 185 mph and ALMOST set a new record of 199.7 mph. It seems technically, Jesse didn’t set a record, according to the Southern California Timing Association. What he did do was exceed the current land speed record, going 199.7 mph for a distance for 132 feet. While still impressive, it is not technically a new world record. He would have had to make two mile-long runs within one hour of each other to be official. After three attempts there was too much dust blowing into the cockpit, Jesse was stopped just short of the 200mph club on the flats of the El Mirage dry lakebed.

Jesse and his crew started with a 572 Chevy big block V8, and then converted it to run on hydrogen gas. A normal V8 has eight fuel injectors, this one had 24 (three per cylinder). Since the point of Jesse’s show is to try and off himself, there certainly needs to be a dangerous element, in this case the potential for explosive engine failure. Should the hydrogen gas, stored in three 5,000 psi tanks provided by Quantum Technologies, ignite back into the intake runners, there would be a very big boom. So long, low-profile intake runners were specially designed to fit into the silo-shaped racecar. The nose was also filled with water and ice to keep engine temperatures below 170 degrees.

After solving the problem of excessive cockpit dust with duct tape and cardboard, they had to open up the air intake with snips, hammers, and a baseball bat. To make sure the car had enough oxygen, of course. The end result is the fastest land speed record for a hydrogen powered car that emitted no pollution during its three record attempts. While just shy of the 200 mph club, Jesse has raised the expectations for hydrogen cars. Now I just need to build a hydrogen powered supercharged K24 for my Honda Insight and give Jesse a run for his money.

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