The UK’s poop-powered bus is officially one fast son-of-a-bitch. As reported Friday by Ars Technica, the bus recently hit a top speed of 123km/h at the Millbrook Proving Ground in Bedfordshire — a record for a regular service bus.
“It was an impressive sight as it swept by on the track,” chief engineer John Bickerton told the BBC. “It sounded like a Vulcan bomber.”
The “Bus Hound” (name inspired by the British Bloodhound supersonic car) runs on biomethane produced by the anaerobic digestion of cow poo in a bioreactor. The methane is compressed, liquified and stored in a series of tanks fixed to the inside of the bus’s roof. Naturally, the bus is painted black and white to look like a Friesian cow.
Now, those of us who have any familiarity with the Speed movies have clearly seen faster buses. Even outside the realm of 90s action-flicks, to be recognised as a Guinness World Record, the bus would have to reach speeds of above 241km/h, according to the BBC.
The next step, of course, will be to race the Bus Hound against the UK’s human poop-powered bus, and learn once and for all whose shit packs more punch.