THE CONTENDER

AN OWNER-BUILT 1,500HP RAM TAKES AIM AT UCC

AN OWNER-BUILT 1,500HP RAM TAKES AIM AT UCC

Kenny Bruner’s ‘06 Dodge Ram is unquestionably over-the-top. From the bright paint and tilt front end to the big-horsepower engine and partial tube chassis, Kenny built his truck with one purpose in mind: to compete in the Ultimate Callout Challenge. “I really liked the idea of building a UCC truck,” says Kenny. “In addition to those types of events, I can still do dyno events, and when I can’t sled pull I can drag race. When I can’t drag race, I can pull. You can just use the vehicle for so many things,” Kenny continued. While he’s owned the truck for a few years, in 2019 things got serious, and the Ram went through a complete transformation.

Kenny knew that in order to compete in the drag racing portion of UCC, the truck needed to be light, so he put an immense amount of time in that area. “Once I went to a Hamilton Cams solid block, I knew I wasn’t going to street

Kenny is an engineer by trade, which is definitely evident once you see his super clean engine compartment. Housed within the tilt hood is a 6.5L Cummins with a Hamilton Cams block, forged rotating assembly, and fully ported and fire-ringed head. Kenny estimates horsepower at around 1,500hp with a large dose of nitrous, although it could probably be pushed a little harder if needed.

Kenny has plenty of fuel for big power thanks to a set of twin 12mm stroker pumps from Dynomite Diesel Products mounted with a Fleece kit. They feed DDP injectors and pressure is kept under control with an Exergy Engineering 2,400 bar relief valve.