What happens when you take a motor designed for tractors and throw it in a dragster? That’s what Jerry Lagod was keen to find out as he built out his epic drag racer supplied with a massive International 466, plus some forced induction goodies that would leave naysayers in the dust.
Lagod was out at a drag racing event in the southern U.S., where he was interviewed by Triple-X Motorsports about his killer diesel dragster build and what it took to get it up and running. Through his connections and personal business, Hypermax, Lagod was able to source this massive diesel and start the build. “We build this car to try to get it to another venue where we could market the engine,” explained Lagod.
A two-stage, triple-turbocharger setup feeds into the International 466, which has been supplied with Hypermax products like block, pistons, and heads. Lagod estimates the dragster runs on 200 pounds of boost, a staggering amount compared to more run-of-the-mill diesel drag race trucks, but the turbochargers and fuel injection pump have been carefully tuned to be progressive and not unleash a tidal wave of torque all at once.
The transmission is a three-speed manual, using a centrifugal Molinari Racing clutch. The power channels out to a Strange Engineering custom rearend and finally a set of Goodyear slicks get that power to the ground. All this equals out to a dragster that can rip down the blacktop in the six-second range – and that’s nothing to sneeze at.
What would you do to take a joy ride in Lagod’s coal-rolling drag car? Let us know what you think of this beast in the comments below.