diff --git a/Rakefile b/Rakefile
index a90c47aa..a70ef857 100644
--- a/Rakefile
+++ b/Rakefile
@@ -6,13 +6,21 @@ $:.unshift File.join(File.dirname(__FILE__), "..", "lib")
 desc 'Default: run unit tests.'
 task :default => :test
 
-desc 'Test the haml plugin.'
+desc 'Test the HAML plugin'
 Rake::TestTask.new(:test) do |t|
   t.libs << 'lib'
   t.pattern = 'test/**/*_test.rb'
   t.verbose = true
 end
 
+desc 'Benchmark HAML against ERb. The benchmark routine is run 100. Use TIMES=n to override'
+task :benchmark do
+  puts '-'*51, "+ Benchmark: HAML vs. ERb", '-'*51
+  puts "Running benchmark #{ENV['TIMES']} times..." if ENV['TIMES']
+  puts `ruby test/benchmark.rb #{ENV['TIMES']}` 
+  puts '-'*51
+end
+
 desc 'Generate documentation for the haml plugin.'
 Rake::RDocTask.new(:rdoc) do |rdoc|
   rdoc.rdoc_dir = 'rdoc'
diff --git a/test/benchmark.rb b/test/benchmark.rb
index 1d3fad09..dcaf77f9 100644
--- a/test/benchmark.rb
+++ b/test/benchmark.rb
@@ -5,14 +5,14 @@ $:.unshift File.join(File.dirname(__FILE__), "..", "lib")
 require 'rubygems'
 require 'action_view'
 
-include Haml::Helper
+include Haml::Helpers
 
 ActionView::Base.register_template_handler("haml", Haml::Engine)
 @base = ActionView::Base.new(File.dirname(__FILE__))
 
-RUNS = 2000
-Benchmark.bm do |x|
-  x.report("haml: ")  { RUNS.times { @base.render("templates/standard"); } }
-  x.report("rhtml:")  { RUNS.times { @base.render(    "rhtml/standard"); } }
-end
+RUNS = (ARGV[0] || 100).to_i
 
+Benchmark.bm do |b|
+  b.report("haml: ") { RUNS.times { @base.render "templates/standard" } }
+  b.report("rhtml:") { RUNS.times { @base.render "rhtml/standard" } }
+end