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Lucas Oil / Cummins Diesel Dragster Sets New Diesel ET Record
On a Sunday afternoon in Muncie Indiana, a major performance barrier was broken. For the first time ever, a diesel powered vehicle accelerated down the quarter mile in under nine seconds. The record now stands at 8.752 seconds at 148 MPH, set by the Bentz Racing Team from Littleton, Colorado. The previous best run before the event was a 9.11 second run by the Bentz Team at Bandimere Speedway in Morrison, Colorado.
The record setting dragster is owned, built, and tuned by Scott Bentz and family. The car is driven by his son, Dustin. It is powered by a 5.9L Cummins inline 6 cylinder Cummins diesel engine. The engine is a modified version of the Cummins diesel engine sold in the popular Dodge Ram truck.
The race team has been progressing over 5 years with the goal of breaking into the 8-second barrier. While there is no other team yet running a diesel dragster, many Dodge Ram owners race their trucks, with impressive results. Some of the trucks will run well into the 12 second range, and then be put back to work during the week in commercial or personal service.
The dragster chassis is a 240-inch wheel base rear engine model, specifically designed and constructed for the extra weight and torque of the Cummins engine. The engine has a two stage turbo charger arrangement for extreme intake air boost to burn the large amount of fuel being injected. The fuel system is custom built and modified for drag racing use. Nitrous Oxide injection is used to cool down the intake air temperatures, along with water injection for additional cooling, as no intake air intercooler is employed on the car.
The balance of the car is somewhat typical of most dragsters in today’s drag racing competition, with a Powerglide transmission, and 9” Ford rear differential. The unique part of the Bentz dragster other than the diesel engine is the addition of a Gear Vendor overdrive and special rear gear ratio to make the low RPM of the diesel and the high torque provide the desired performance.
Another interesting element to this race team is the use of BioDiesel, a renewable fuel resource. The fuel is pure 100% BioDiesel, with only the addition of Lucas Oil Product’s fuel additive. The performance of the fuel has tested better than petroleum based fuel due to the higher cetane rating.
Sponsors of the race team include Lucas Oil Products, ATS Diesel Performance, Cummins Inc., Cummins Rocky Mountain LLC., BlueSun BioDiesel, Snow Performance, and Diesel Dynamics.
The team’s website has photos and history of the car and updates each week at www.cumminsracing.com.
Lucas Oil Products from Corona California, the world leader in heavy duty and high-performance oils and lubricants, is the primary sponsor on the Cummins Diesel Dragster. Go to www.lucasoil.com or see your local retailer for more information on their complete line of lubrication products.
