For me, one of the best parts of the job is attending press launches, where we are often among the first to see new machinery from manufacturers. Some launches are low-key, others less so, but the opportunity to speak to the engineers who have been working on a project, often for several years, usually provides real insight into the challenges they faced and how they overcame them.
Last week was a great example of this, as I was one of a small number of journalists invited to JCB's World Headquarters to see the reveal of Hydromax — its hydrogen-powered land speed record challenger.
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Powered by two highly tuned Derbyshire-manufactured 800hp engines, the car has been developed in the UK by a UK-based engineering team, working alongside some prestigious and world-leading motorsport engineering businesses, which are also based here in Britain.
Yes, a huge amount of manufacturing has left the UK and, no, we do not build anywhere near the quantity of products we did 50 years ago. But we are still exceptionally good at developing cutting-edge technology and overcoming significant engineering challenges.
Nobody has built a hydrogen-fuelled land speed record car before, and to achieve it using an 80hp industrial engine as the starting point is genuinely impressive — even if it is somewhat removed from building yellow diggers, tractors and telehandlers.
