Thursday, May 14, 2009

Diesel Power Challenge Tears 'em Up in Bowling Green

The three day AMSOIL-sponsored event brought together 15 trucks (five trucks from each manufacturer) from all over North America. The competitors were picked from hundreds of reader entries by the staff of Diesel Power magazine. The results demonstrated were nothing less than awesome.

As noted previously the Diesel Power Challenge consists of five events:
-1/4-mile drag race
-1/8-mile acceleration test with a 10,000 trailer
-Chassis dyno test to measure peak torque output
-36,000 pound sled pull
-110 mile drive to test fuel economy and street worthiness.

Here's how it all shook out.

The quickest 1/4-mile drag strip pass was made by Robert Evans in his 2004 Dodge Ram 2500 4x4. His 11.07 second (at 127 mph) drag strip run makes his truck quicker than the $100,000 2009 Corvette ZR1. In all, there were six Diesel Power Challenge trucks that ran the 1/4-mile in the 11-second range.

Matt Gainer’s 2002 GMC Sierra 2500HD was able to tow the 10,000 pound trailer through the 1/8 mile in 11.03 seconds.

Robert Evans 2004 Dodge Ram 2500 made 1,479 lb-ft of torque and 914 hp on the SuperFlow chassis dyno at TS Performance.

Ryan Flies 2005 Dodge Ram pulled a 36,000 pound sled 303 feet during our sled pull test.

Matt Larson’s 2002 Chevrolet Silverado 2500HD got 23.08 mpg over our 110 mile fuel economy test. Matt also drove his competition truck more than 1,600 miles from Spanish Fork, Utah just to get to this year’s Diesel Power Challenge.

The overall 2009 Diesel Power Challenge champion was Robert K. Evans, a passionate Purple Heart winner from Reno, Nevada driving a 2004 Dodge Ram 2500, with a 5.9L Cummins engine featuring Industrial Injection compound turbochargers.

We'll keep you posted when the program is about to air on TV. In the meantime, renew your subscription to Diesel Power magazine so you don't miss the details.

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