HEADLINES: A Pro Street Diesel Truck Hits The Rollers

DNR Customs’ dyno day went off without a hitch over the weekend, with 65 trucks hitting the rollers and nine of them clearing four digits. ODSS Pro Street driver Austin Denny even made an appearance with his compound turbocharged, 6.0L Power Stroke Super Duty—a truck that’s been as quick at 5.19 in the eighth-mile. And, despite playing it conservative (he was running a backup engine due to cracking a block at the Wagler Fall Nationals), Austin laid down 1,535 hp. Right behind him, David Martin’s Duramax put up an impressive 1,432 hp.

Drag Racing

A New Manual Transmission Record

How fast can you row gears? Better yet, how effectively can you launch a truck with a clutch? Ty Owens has it down to a science behind the wheel of his standard cab Silverado. And as of October 6^th, he’s the owner of the quickest manually shifted diesel in existence. It all went down at the Truck Mania event held at Sacramento Raceway, where the ZF-6 backed Duramax ripped through the quarter-mile in 10.485-seconds at 128 mph. But perhaps even more impressive than Ty’s ability to jam gears (or the ZF-6’s ability to handle it all) is the truck’s incredible 1.47-second 60-foot on the previous pass.

Photo Courtesy of Jason Sands

In Case You Missed It

Back on September 30, Derek Rose further distanced himself from everyone else on earth. His 3,000-plus horsepower, four-wheel drive, Cummins-powered Dodge—a truck that won U.C.C. in a previous life—put up a 4.41-second eighth-mile at 170 mph. Then he backed it up later on with a 4.41 at 173 mph. That’s diesel Pro Mod territory in a vehicle that weighs 3,950 pounds with Derek in the driver seat. According to the 173 mph trap speed number, just shy of 3,200 hp is being applied on the big end of the track. And just an FYI: to grab these 1.16 and 1.17-second 60-foots, hundreds upon hundreds of horsepower is pulled out of the tune-up for the launch, then progressively gets ramped back in.

In The Dirt

Duramax Killer Carnage

The price of pioneering a one-off setup, especially a P-pumped Duramax in the Super Stock diesel truck class, can be high—and no team in pulling knows this better than the guys behind the Cummins Killer name. An old foe of Cummins Killer seems to have returned this year: burnt pistons. In typical Cummins Killer fashion, a huge fireball accompanied this failure. But in the words of Proformance Pros, the truck’s chassis builder, “when you burn a piston…burn it good!” While the cause of the failure hasn’t been made public yet, one thing is for sure: these guys don’t quit. Look for Cummins Killer III to be up and running strong again soon.

OEM

Ford And GM: Third Quarter Sales Are Up

The third quarter of 2023 was very good to General Motors and Ford Motor Company. The former automaker delivered 674,336 vehicles in Q3 (up 21-percent year-over-year), with strong demand for GM’s trucks and SUV’s driving the bulk of its sales. For the calendar year, GM’s overall sales are up 19-percent. For crosstown rival Ford, third quarter sales were up 7.7 percent overall, with F-series sales up 13.4-percent compared to last year. Year-to-date, F-series sales total 573,370 trucks, or 169,949 more trucks than Second Place Silverado.

FCA: Third Quarter Sales Are Down 1-Percent

Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, a subsidiary of Stellantis N.V., sold 380,563 vehicles in total in Q3, down 1-percent from last year. But while any drop in overall sales tends to dominate headlines, it’s not always doom and gloom. So, although FCA’s third quarter sales figures were down 1-percent vs. the same quarter in 2022, it’s important to note that the Ram brand is holding strong. In particular, Ram’s commercial fleet channel’s total U.S. sales increased by 19-percent compared to the same period last year. It will be interesting to see when and where the ripple occurs in sales figures given the current UAW strike, but without a doubt one is coming.