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Diesel racing cars are nothing new.

  • 28-03-2008 8:20pm
    #1
    WHITE_P
    Closed Accounts Posts: 619 ✭✭✭


    As early as 1931, Clessie Cummins installed his diesel in the Cummins "Diesel Special" race car, hitting 162 km/h (101 mph) at Daytona and 138 km/h (86 mph) at the Indianapolis 500 race,[8] where Dave Evans became the first driver to complete the Indianapolis 500 without making a single pit stop, completing the full distance on the lead lap and finishing 13th, relying on torque and fuel efficiency to overcome weight and low peak power.[9]

    In 1933, a 1925 Bentley with a Gardner 4LW engine was the first diesel-engine car to take part in the Monte Carlo Rally when it was driven by Lord Howard de Clifford. It was the leading British car and finished fifth overall. [10]


    A 1952 "Cummins Diesel Special" Indianapolis 500 roadster.In 1952, Fred Agabashian in a Cummins diesel won the pole at the Indianapolis 500 race with a turbocharged 6.6 liter diesel car,[11] setting a record for pole position lap speed, 222.108 km/h or 138.010 mph.[9] Don Cummins and his chief engineer Neve Reiners recognized that the low center of gravity of the flat engine configuration (designed to lie beneath the floor of a bus) plus the power advantage gained by the novel use of Elliott turbocharging would be a winning combination.[12]

    At the start, a slow pace lap (reportedly less than 80 mph) apparently induced what is now referred to as "turbo lag" and badly hampered the throttle response of the Cummins Diesel. Although Agabashian found himself in eighth place before reaching the first turn, he moved up to fifth in a few laps and was running competitively (albeit well back in the field after a tire change) until the badly situated air intake of the car swallowed enough debris from the track to disable the turbocharger at lap 71; he finished 27th.[13]


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