World Land Speed Record

Fire service historian and author

Roger Mardon

www.romar.org.uk

This 1981 Jaguar XJ12 was adapted to provide fire protection for the world land speed record attempt in 1983 when British-built Thrust 2 reached a record average speed of 633.468mph. It was equipped with a Chubb 25gals AFFF (aqueous film forming foam) system and 4 dry powder extinguishers. The photograph was taken at the Jaguar Heritage Centre in 2000.

In 1997 the record of Thrust 2 was broken by Thrust SSC which achieved a speed of 763mph to become the first land vehicle officially recognised as having broken the sound barrier. On that occasion fire and rescue cover was provided by this left-hand-drive Jaguar XJR fitted with a 200 litre FFFP (film forming fluoroprotein) foam system designed by PSP Safety Products as a sub-contractor of Kidde-Graviner. Portable rescue gear by Junkers Systems GmbH of Germany was carried in the boot. This vehicle was also seen at the Jaguar Heritage Centre.