While we haven’t found much use for human excrement, cow manure powers the fastest regular service bus yet. Called the “Bus Hound”, this British bus cracked the land speed record for a regular service bus, clocking in at 123.57km/h. Powered by compressed biomethane natural gas, the so-called biogas is derived from cow manure. This trait and the source of the natural gas lead to its Frisian cow style livery and carbon neutral operation. While there are many buses, even in my own neighborhood that runs on compressed natural gas, specifically using biomethane made from cow manure is rare.
In order to reach its top speed, the Reading Buses, the owners, had to make a number of modifications. The speed limiter normally set to about 56mph had to be removed and high-speed tires installed. it also likely involved some other minor tweaks to things like the suspension. Even with the modifications, chief engineer John Bickerton remarked that the bus “sounded like a Vulcan bomber—the aerodynamics aren’t designed for going 80mph”.
After the conclusion of the record-breaking run, the bus will have all of its tweaks removed, the speed limiter replaced and plain old regular tires installed. This is important as other buses records have used vehicles that are otherwise custom-built or heavily modified in order to set their records. This is why this speed record is not for the “fastest bus” but for the fastest regular service bus. Unfortunately, Guinness Word Records won’t be certifying this speed as they wouldn’t consider anything under 150mph. With cow poo powering the fastest bus, who knows if human poo can beat the 150mph barrier?
