Sand Drags are a different style of racing from asphalt drags. Quarter-mile runs are a marathon compared to the 100-yard dash of a typical sand drag. The same goals remain between the two: a good launch, a well behaved chassis, and a quick ET. When we came across this diesel it definitely struck us as a coal rolling black sheep in the sand rail community.
The typical sand drag car is a tubular chassis buggy design with a multitude of suspension options. Often constructed out of thick wall aluminum tubing these cars can be high maintenance when it comes to chasing cracks, and treacherous to consider crashing. Lightweight engines tend to compliment the featherweight chassis, aluminum blocked, air-cooled powerplants were the norm until somebody plucked a V8 out of a truck and dropped it in their buggy. The resulting vehicles can be as light as 800 lbs.
The mid-engined chassis of this custom sand rail appears to be chromoly based on the pickling, no doubt a necessity to support the monster drivetrain. Perhaps surprising to many diesel power enthusiasts, the suspension on this drag car is fully independent in the rear. The swing axle design is derived from the VW transaxles of old and eliminates the outer pivot at the wheel for added strength at the cost of camber change.
Our friend with the Duramax is running with a different design mentality, and we welcome creativity in motorsports! Powering his sand rail is a 6.6-liter turbo diesel V8. Flotation and torque are key to getting a sand car moving down the drags and the oomph of this diesel does the job!
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