[papao55]

Dale Evans is at the wheel of the Cummins Diesel Racing Car. It was the first diesel racer built in the U.S. It placed 13th in the Indianapolis Race of 1930 without making a single stop for fuel, water, or tires.

Audi's plan to field a diesel-powered car in this year’s Le Mans 24 Hour is causing word to spread that this will be the world’s first diesel-powered race car.

Not exactly.

Besides the diesels that race across the Dakar desert or up Pikes Peak, how about the nonstop run by a Cummins diesel in the 1931 Indianapolis 500, or Fred Agabashian’s accomplishment there in 1952 that saw a Cummins sit on the pole?

In the summer of 1930 Clessie Cummins of the Columbus, Indiana-based firm approached Eddie Rickenback- er about taking advantage of the new rules designed to encourage the return of auto manufacturers to the famed venue, recently dominated by pure racing cars. Cummins believed one of his truck engines could run all day; his concern was that it would be fast enough to qualify.
Dave Evans put the Cummins-powered Duesenberg chassis in the show (40 starters rather than 33) at 96.871 mph and then traveled the entire distance without a stop, taking the checker 37 minutes after the winner. His average for 200 laps—86.107 mph—was faster than Ricken-backer had required for four.

A pair of Cummins entries appeared in 1934, Evans stripping the gears after making a stop at 81 laps with a four-cycle version, and H.W. “Stubby” Stubblefield, with relief from Evans, placing 12th with a

two-cycle job.

In 1950 Jimmy Jackson drove a special Kurtis-Kraft, which housed a six-cylinder 401-cid Cummins monster boosted by a supercharger. The qualifying waiver was no longer in effect and Jackson barely made the field, squeezing in with the 33rd-fastest time. The supercharger knocked him out after 52 laps.
<---click for pic

In 1952 Cummins came loaded for bear. Cummins ordered from Frank Kurtis a wide, low-slung chassis into which was lowered the engine from Jackson’s car, now turned on its side. The icing on the cake was the addition of what was variously referred to as a supercharger or a “turbo supercharger.” It was, in fact, the Speedway’s first turbocharger by a full 12 years.

Driver Agabashian, aware the team possessed something special, was accused of sandbagging in practice; Agabashian never tipped off the opposition by putting together a full lap at speed. When it was time to qualify, he uncorked it, winning the pole with new records and upping the single-lap mark to 139.010 mph. But Agabashian had to “dirt track” the heavy (2400-pound vs. 1800/1900-pound) car around the place, throwing the tread from a couple of tires in the process.

The crowd loved it, but the other competitors did not. Since the supercharged Offenhausers were limited to 183 cid, the 401 allowed to the diesel did not exactly represent an equal playing field.

On race day, however, Agabashian was forced out by overheating after 71 laps, the culprit being the mysterious turbo supercharger. It was installed just inside the grille, allowing rubber particles and other fragmented debris sucked up from the track to block the intake.That was it for the diesels, as Cummins achieved what it set out to accomplish: Truck sales went up tenfold, several hundred enthusiastic Cummins employees felt bonded to the 500, and people still talk about that pole-winning upset more than half a century later.

So a diesel engine in a race car ain’t exactly new.

From AutoWeek.com

[1Ton]

Thats some good reading on diesel history. Theres a Cummins engine plant 5 miles from my house.

[smokekiki]

Cool reading!Thanks.