1,200-RWHP, Compound Turbo 6.0L Excursion

When you combine a love of the 6.0L Power Stroke and the largest SUV ever produced with obscene horsepower, you’re gonna have a good time… Meet Danny Elmore’s Ford Excursion. It spent some quality time on Truck Source Diesel’s chassis dyno recently and made a stout, fuel-only 1,023-rwhp and 1,200-rwhp on a shot of nitrous. The HEUI-fired 6.0L sports a set of 330cc injectors with 150-percent over nozzles from Warren Diesel, and a Thumper 2 high-pressure oil pump from RCD Performance. A compound turbo arrangement, built by TSD’s Nathaniel Oku, boasts a KC Turbos Stage 3 VGT in the valley and an S488 as the atmosphere charger. If it werent’ for the hood stack, we would nominate Danny’s Excursion as the best sleeper we’ve ever seen!

At The ‘Strip

Big Money, Small Tire, No-Prep Racing In Texas

Some very serious cash is being thrown around in drag racing these days, and here is yet another great example. WesTX Abilene Raceway is hosting the biggest small tire, no-prep payout in history. At the Freedom of War race on July 3-4, $150,000 in payouts are guaranteed—and AWD vehicles are allowed to compete. Will we see any diesel takers? Key rules for the small tire class include 28×10.5 (Non-W), steel roof and quarter panels, and no added weight past the rear bumper. A $1,000 entry (with a $200 lock-in, non-refundable deposit) gets racers into the show, which will be made up of a 64-car field.

SICK Summering With WCFab

Last week, more than 300 of the world’s quickest street cars (and trucks) joined the SICK Summer tour in the Midwest. Drag-n-drive regulars, Wehrli Custom Fabrication, once again completed the 5-day, 4-track circuit in their compound turbo’d, shortbed ’01 Silverado 2500 HD. The company’s LB7 Duramax-powered, RWD Chevy has proven a consistent 10-second performer as well as a 17-mpg fuel-sipper. Driver Dustin West might not have run a new personal best in the truck this time (it’s been 10.30s), but team WCFab is gradually working toward a goal of getting the lightweight Bow Tie into the 9’s.

Justin Zeigler’s Trophy Room

The walls are a bit more decorative around Justin Zeigler’s place thanks to these new additions from CO₂ Solutions’ Dani Coleman. Justin holds not one, but two Outlaw Diesel Super Series records—and given the class name change prior to 2025 the Pro Street achievement may be locked in permanently. The latter record came in September of 2023, when his ’06 Dodge stormed through the 1/8-mile in 4.749 seconds at 159.66 mph. The second plaque calls attention to Justin’s recent, Pro Truck record: a 4.572 at 165.08 mph. May they serve as a visual reminder around Zeigler Diesel Performance HQ that hard work, resilience, and determination can take you all the way to the top.

Diesel History

The First Truck To Ever Go 12’s, 11’s, 10’s, and 9’s

Speaking of records… Dennis Perry lit up social media last week with a throwback to “Caged Fury,” a truck that set the tone for what was coming in the diesel industry. Way back in 2002, Dennis and the TS Performance team pushed this ’01 Dodge into the 12’s in the quarter-mile—the first diesel truck to accomplish the feat (and on a VP44, no less). A year later, they broke into the 11’s, another first. Then in 2004, Caged Fury went 10.96, making it the first diesel to run a 10-second quarter-mile. A few years later, and with a compound turbo’d, Scheid Diesel-built, P-pumped 24-valve 5.9L Cummins under the hood, the iconic Caged Fury became the first diesel truck to go 9’s, running a 9.48 at 141 mph.

Written by Mike McGlothlin