It’s absolutely wild what diesel drag racers are doing these days. The team at Firepunk Diesel recently reset the diesel door slammer record in their 1970 Duster with a booming 3.85 pass at 198 mph. We caught up with Lavon Miller to learn more about what goes into making a diesel-powered anything go so quick and fast.

The ability to make horsepower has always been available with a diesel engine, but now racers have access to technology that allows them to fully control their engine. This technology has empowered diesel tuners to control how power comes in through fueling. Power is added and subtracted by changing how much fuel is introduced into the engine. The ECU technology also gives diesel drag racers access to more power management during a run, this helps to keep the tire under the vehicle.

Nitrous is used with high-powered diesel applications to help spool the turbo up. The spool jets used with the nitrous get the turbo rolling. Lavon also explains that nitrous is used to help the turbo breathe even deeper down the track. This opens the door up for even more horsepower since there’s a larger volume of air available, so more fuel can be added.

The engine technology that teams like Firepunk is using really isn’t super exotic. A billet block is used as the backbone of the engine, but it maintains all the dimensions of your standard Cummins mill. The billet was selected to save weight and add strength, both key areas when you’re trying to apply huge horsepower do the track and run three-second runs in the eighth-mile.

In this video, Lavon goes into even more detail about what goes into making 3,600 horsepower with a diesel engine AND getting it to stick to the track.