WHERE WOULD DIESEL COMPETITION BE WITHOUT SCHEID?
"It has just totally changed," Scheid said. "It's a totally new concept from what it was originally. It has grown by leaps and bounds. Everything's gotten a lot more professional as far as the pickup trucks and how they're being built, and the competition from what it was years ago. there is an extreme amount of competition out there now. Everybody is taking it very seriously and having a good time with it."
What keeps Scheid motivated, he said, "is the challenge of it as much as anything else. you're always working against the weakest line in the unit. If you're going to build more horsepower, something else is going to give up on you, whether it be rearend, whether it be tires, whether it be frame, or whatever. It's always in a growing mode, I guess, to where you're never going to reach your limit.
"There's always going to be someone else out there who's going to be a little better, so you're always going to have a goal to shoot for."
Having that goal, Scheid said, is what he expects will drive diesel competition to new, now-unimaginable heights in the coming years.
It is, he said, an industry in its infancy, and if Scheid has been critical in its development until now, he sees no incentive to slow down. not yet. And not any time soon.
And that's something he takes seriously. Very seriously.
7 QUESTIONS FOR DAN SCHEID
Q.What was the first diesel you worked on?
A. In 1965, we rented a John Deere diesel for the farm that started with a pony motor.
Q. What do you drive everyday?
A. An '03 Dodge with a 5.9L Cummins, and my wife Vicki drives an '06 VW Beetle with a diesel.
Q. What diesel accomplishment are you most proud of?
A. the success we have had with the pulling trucks, and we are very excited moving forward in drag racing.
Q. Could common-rail injection ever compete with mechanical injection for all-out performance?
A. yes, it should be able to.
Q. What's your opinion of nitrous oxide injection?
A. It's an addiction that needs to go away.
Q. If there's one thing you could change about the 5.9L Cummins design, what would it be?
A. Increase the airflow through the cylinder head.