GO REALLY-REALLY FAST

I own a 2003 Dodge equipped with the Cummins diesel, and I really want to get into drag racing. The truck was recently purchased during a fleet vehicle auction, and is currently stock with the exception of a 4-inch exhaust system. What do I need to know to build a 10-second truck?

Craig Lucyk Salt Lake City, UT

Craig, if you depend on your truck for transportation, you could realistically modify your truck to run in the 12s and still maintain some degree of streetability. Ten second trucks are a whole new breed of cat. Owners of 10-second diesel trucks are absolutely serious about drag racing. The trucks themselves are dedicated to racing. The 10-second Dodges I’ve seen were 2WD standard cab trucks with frames that have been “back-halved and four-linked,” and the rear differential was narrowed to provide room for 18-inch-wide wrinkle-wall tires. Everything that can be removed from the truck has been removed in an attempt to get the total truck weight into the 5,000-pound range. The truck will have an Nhraapproved roll cage, fire suppression system, fivepoint driver race harness and seat, and engine shut-offs.

The 10-second Cummins engine will be a hand built, highly refined, and purpose-built racing engine, usually a 12-valve with a custom Bosch P7100 fuel injection pump capable of pushing lots of fuel through custom injectors. The pistons will produce a compression ratio on the order of 15:1 and the large single, twin, or triple turbocharger system will push boost pressure into the 80-100 psi range. You’ll need close to 1,000 horsepower

to make 10s in a steel-bodied modified production truck. And we haven’t even discussed the racing automatic transmission, ice-bath charge-air cooler, nitrous oxide or...

Did I mention that owners of 10-second diesel trucks were serious? Good luck, and please keep us posted. We’re always interested in fast Dodge diesels.