Rolling Coal in a Dragster? 4.219 @ 172.88 MPH!

It wasn’t all that long ago that the words “diesel” and “performance” just didn’t go together. When I was growing up, diesels were used for towing trailers and very little else, but in the past decade or so, there’s been an insane leap forward in that arena that has brought Diesel engine performance to an insane level rivaling that of their gas-burning counterparts.

While most of the diesel racing that goes on is between big ol’ pickup trucks, there are some diesel tuners that have dropped their baddest bullets between the framerails of actual drag car chassis to see just how quick they can go on the track without the bulk and weight of the pickup chassis holding them back. With the right tune pushing power and torque levels at the 4-digit mark, these things are no joke, and the numbers they run at the track are very impressive.

The video below shows the progression throughout the a day at the track of what a good tuner can do while refining the tune to the chassis and the track conditions, knocking huge chunks off the ET as he analyzes the data and finds areas where horsepower can be added and where it needs to be removed based on track conditions. These cars are built to plant huge amounts of horsepower to the track, though, so there will probably be much more adding power than removing it. With those monster tires out back, the power can be brought in early and, as long as it sticks, the car should put up some huge numbers.

As the day progresses, the ET’s drop, culminating in a stellar 4.21 elapsed time at 172 MPH, a great pass for any car, regardless of the type of engine. The fact that it’s a diesel certainly does make it much more impressive, though, and just proves diesels are not to be taken lightly in the drag racing world.