Diesel Booster Aiming for Speed Record in Oil-Burning Dragster

Diesel Booster Aiming for Speed Record in Oil-Burning Dragster

By John O'Dell February 26, 2010

We're suckers for a good race car picture any time we can justify one here on Edmunds' green car site, and this is as good a reason as they get.

Gale Banks, the California-based dean of diesel and leading proponent of the idea that the fuel - and engines that burn it - can be clean, economical and powerful, is taking his Sidewinder Top Diesel dragster to the Desert Diesel Nationals in Arizona next weekend (March 6) with his eye on runs down the asphalt quarter-mile in the 200 mph-plus, low mid-6-seconds range.

And, he says, he'll do it "without the black clouds of soot" that normally come with diesel racing (because the engine is loaded with fuel on the line, a tremendous amount blows out the exhaust without being fully burned up, resulting in a lot of soot).

Banks has sent numerous speed records with diesel race vehicles and does it because he loves to go fast and wants to raise awareness of advanced diesel technology and the diesel engine's power and diesel fuel's efficiency compared to gasoline.

(Video after break)

He's helped develop clean diesel standards that have led to the new crop of 50-state legal diesel passenger vehicles.

The Sidewinder dragster uses a heavily modified General Motors 6.6-liter diesel V8 that cranks out in excess of 1,300 horsepower and 1,300 ft.-lbs of torque.

Here's a video of a test Banks ran last year at the Famoso Raceway drag strip near Bakersfield, Calif. - just before the transmission broke.

John O'Dell:  is an AutoObserver Senior Editor. Follow @AutoObserver on Twitter.