Brad Ekstam woke one morning in the summer of 1999 feeling something was missing from his life. He wasn't exactly sure at that moment what was missing, only that he would have to find something extraordinary to fill the void. Something like building a 200mph 1-ton pickup truck just might do the trick.
Brad is founder and president of Diesel Performance Products (DPP), manufacturer of the FASS fuel system, which would be enough for most people. But Brad is a bit more driven than the average man and makes a Red Bull energy drink look like an Ambien CR. So when he delivered an '06 Dodge Ram to MCS Midwest Performance Diesel in Gray Summit, Missouri (with 14 miles on the odometer) to turn it into a race truck, people just thought it was Brad being Brad.
Brad's goal was to have a 1-ton pickup truck that would be capable of more than 180 mph. Small details remained, such as how MCS would make it go that fast, where the truck would be able to use all of that speed, and how long it would take to finish the buildup. Of course Brad wasn't going to let that slow him down.
Bye-Bye Warranty
MCS tore the brand new truck down to the frame in a couple of days. Most of the Cummins' engine parts were sent to Enterprise Engine Performance where pistons were fly-cut to accommodate larger valves by ATS and a new camshaft from Enterprise. We asked Brad to share the specs on those parts, but in this rare instance, he's not talking. While the engine was apart, the rotating assembly was balanced to endure 5,000 rpm and upward of 1,200 hp for extended periods of time.
To feed the 5.9L-powered beast, Brad called on a 200-gph FASS system, larger injectors, dual CP3 injection pumps, and compound turbos from Industrial Injection. A Nitrous Express system was also fitted, but at this point, the engine builds enough power to go beyond the tires' traction capabilities. ATS was called on for a transmission that could take this level of abuse, and a Gear Vendors overdrive was added to give the Dodge a second Overdrive gear.