Richard "Mad Dog" Madsen drives one of the most visible trucks of the diesel-performance era, a '95 Ford F-350 crew cab with a Cummins 5.9L engine, as often as he can-almost every day. In one of the most powerful street-driven trucks, diesel or not, Richard racks up thousands of miles a year in his 1,000-plus-horsepower ride. To get the truck where it is today, Richard altered it over the years as stronger and better parts became available-or as the existing parts broke because of the massive power and torque numbers the vehicle produces.
The story of the Fummins, as the truck is affectionately known, began when Richard purchased it brand-new in 1995. After a while, he decided to go a slightly different route than most new-truck owners. In talking with his soon-to-be partner in crime, Nowell Thomas, about the virtues of the Cummins engines, he decided a Cummins swap in his Ford would be a great and unique way of making the truck faster. Richard started collecting parts he wanted in the buildup and then set his sights on building a reliable, solid, high-12-second daily driver.
Once everything was collected, the swap was made using a custom flexplate and converter to get the Ford transmission to work with the Cummins engine. His goal of having a high-12-second truck would never happen, however, because his very first pass down the quarter-mile was in the 11.90-second range at 114 mph. Spurred on by this initial success, over a period of a couple of years, Richard turned the truck into the 1,000hp, 10-second monster it is now. As the truck has dipped into the 10-second range, it has been harder and harder on parts-broken 300M input shafts, broken axles, broken lockers, and roasted turbos have all plagued the truck as it has become faster and faster. Still, the Fummins remains very driveable, and Richard uses it on hunting and fishing trips. He reports a 15-mpg average at 75 mph, even with larger tires.
To make the extreme power levels it does, extensive work was done to the 12-valve Cummins that sits in the truck. Custom 16.5:1 compression Mahle pistons ride on a balanced bottom end, while a hot-street cam from Haisley Machine and mildly ported, fire-ringed heads with 14mm studs round out the engine package. For a crazy amount of fuel, the truck relies on a Piers Diesel Stoopid pump, custom injector lines, laser-cut delivery valves, and custom Dynomite Diesel injectors. To burn all that fuel, Richard relies on an Aurora 5000 for his "small" turbo. His "large" turbo is a B-52 from Turbo Auto Diesel that relies on a 5-inch turbo-back exhaust with a 5-inch stack providing the black smoke. Power is in the 1,100-plus-horsepower range at 3,000 rpm while running about 116 psi of boost with the current turbo setup.