i got smoked tonight by a 2003 Chevy 2500 Duramax. it was mean ****. it had a rebuilt trans and a twin turbo kit runnin 50psi. it was amazing. he ran a 12.40 at the local track.

not that i like to loose and brag about it but wow.. this truck was mean.

my first loss was to a supra than also ran 12.40s.. we're tryin to set up a race

 

Thats a mean truck. At our track we got a 4 door ford truck thats gotta a turbo runs like high twelves.

 

anyone with a 7000 pound vehucle runnin those times deserves a lotta respect.

and his TT kit was homemade.. he told me he only had about 8k in the truck.. 4k for the trans rebuld, 3500 for the TT set up and like 500 or so for some chips

 

It's crazy how much power they leave on the table in the power dept. in those diesel trucks. I seen a ford F250 run a 12 flat earlier this year with a chip, exhaust, more boost and propane injection

 

Diesels are the coming thing for performance cars, they are economical to run, and if built strong enough can make some very serious power. We most likely are going to see more and more of them, especially with government mandated MPG ratings.

One of my sons drives an 18 wheel Freightliner powered by a 14.0L Detroit diesel reted @ 515 HP and 1650 LB-FT of torque. The whole affair weighs in at over 80,000 lb and averages 7.5 MPG. If a 4000 lb car had the same efficiency it would have a 500HP engine and get 150 MPG.

Audi has been running a diesel powered race car in the prototype class and has been very succesful, coming in first at LeMans this year. The R10 is a 5.5L V12 aluminum diesel rated at 650HP & 800 LB-FT of torque, and was able to run a full 24 hours at racing speeds.

What I am trying to point out is that us hot rodders better get used to working on diesels or we will be inhaling their smoke.

 

My camaro bud used to work at Ride Revolution, a local car performance do-anything-for-enough-money shop. He told me of a big diesel truck that with JUST A CHIP change would go from everyday heavy-duty hauler to doing a standing burnout on dualies. Heydey-friggin-hey. Euro has tons of diesel cars, reason the us doesn't see too many is emissions standards. At least I think that's why.
And Audi has had that class by the differentials for quite some time now haven't they?

 

You are right about the European emission standards, but another factor is that their diesel fuel burns cleaner than ours. The EPA has mandated low sulphur diesel fuel starting on January. This will make ourdiesel fuel the same as the European stuff & then we will be seeing more diesel cars offered, especially from Mercedes, since they devised a way to trap smoke partcles.

Audi has been winning the P1 prototype class (basically a no holds barred class) for several years, but this is the first time they won with a diesel engine.