In olden times, a battering ram was a pretty simple weapon--basically just a big log used to bust through the castle gates. Eventually, medieval defense contractors improved siege tactics by tapering the trunk into a blunt point and capping it with iron. These crude implements have come a long way since then, but this approach of using basic materials to overcome obstacles hasn't.
Barry Voltner's Dodge Ram, for instance, started life as your ordinary diesel workhorse but later became an assault vehicle for laying siege on the dragstrip. Clearly, this double duty required sharpening the forward end, somewhat like on those tree trunks of yore. Time and technology have changed everything though, so much so that rather than ramming with a slow back-and-forth motion, this Ram goes ballistic like a cruise missile right off the line. Indeed, when all was said and done, this truck has rocketed through the quarter-mile in 12.52 seconds at 108.45 mph.
What follows is how Barry achieved this remarkable feat in a practical 8,500-pound pickup, an '03 Dodge 4x4 1-ton dualie that he also herds around town in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. It started with a simple realization back in May 2003, when Barry and his partner Roger Lee, owners of North American Diesel Performance (NADP) put their money where their mouths were. Their strategy was to build a diesel-racing machine that could burn up the quarter-mile and still be a reliable vehicle for towing a horse trailer. Although, they had a question in their minds. Was this really possible or were they shooting blanks? Could they move this beast down the track without exploding at speed towing a trailer? To find an answer, they raided NADP's parts warehouse to come up with the right combination to move that diesel and still survive.
On his quest for the 12s,...
On his quest for the 12s, Barry Voltner's '03 Cummins engine was retrofitted with a '98-'02-style three-piece exhaust manifold from ATS, so he could experiment with different turbos--he's on his sixth! Currently, Barry's turbo of choice is a Phat Shaft 66 from Industrial Injection.
Barry started with the obvious: better breathing. That meant an Advanced Flow Engineering (aFe) Stage 1 air intake and an MBRP dual stainless 4-inch exhaust. More air meant more fuel could be burned, so he added Industrial Injection 80hp injectors. These injectors then benefited from increased pulse-width management from a Predator 130hp chip by Dr Performance. It should come as no surprise that Barry quickly encountered a problem with high exhaust gas temperature. Since there were no aftermarket bolt-on turbos available at that time for his particular engine, he decided to change the exhaust manifold design to the older '98-'02 24-valve setup, using a three-piece ATS manifold, instead of the newer two-piece unit. This retro-fit also required modifying the Stage 1 aFe intake and the compressor housing to accept a Holset HX40 turbo.
Right before his first big attack on the dragstrip, Barry found that the turbo could not handle the horsepower, and it disintegrated. Using a backup HX40, he still made it to the race and managed to pull off a 13.95-second run. That number wasn't enough to conquer the castle, but the other combatants were beginning to eye him nervously. The next buildup stage required beefing up the transmission. He knew that with all of this extra horsepower and torque he had to add one of his tougher transmissions from the company's Heavy Hauler series. Barry then incorporated a Banks intercooler and intake elbow that helped drop the EGT by a cool 140 degrees. But, by this point, he had already blown two head gaskets, so he needed to strengthen the head bolts as well. In went a set of ARP's latest head studs for increased clamping power. Since the head was coming off anyway, he had the exhaust side-ported for better flow.