What a great day!
As if I wasn’t already impressed with the power of the stock Cummins engine in my own truck, I was offered a ride in the truck owned by John P. at a lunch get together on Saturday. This was my first ride in a modified CTD, and I would never have believed that a 4x4 pick-up could perform this way, let alone, a 4x4 diesel pick-up. I now know why some folks refer to John’s truck as the
“RED ROCKET”.
First off, this truck is immaculate inside, outside, and under the hood. I mean, I washed my truck that morning before I left the house for the 2½-hour drive and even though he said he had come straight from work, I still think he must have spent the night out in that parking lot cleaning on that thing. :-laf Hehehe
Anyway, back to the ride part of the story. Actually, John was fixing to give a ride to Barry when some of the other guys
(who have ridden with or evidently followed behind John) suggested that I go too. Barry gave up his co-plot seat (
Thanks, 
) to move to the back seat and we were off. As we made our way from the parking lot and local roads to the interstate, John was happy to answer my
newbie-to-the-performance-world questions and I was thinking to myself,
“this truck don’t feel or sound much different from mine. The exhaust and turbo was more pronounced, but,,,,,”. All of that changed as soon as we hit the interstate. Cruising at about 70-75mph, John then cut the
“RED ROCKET” loose. In the blink of an eye, with the turbo singing, and a plume of black smoke out the tailpipe, a glance at the speedometer showed 110mph and it isn’t even straining!! The feeling is almost indescribable in that it is smooth as you get pressed back into the seat, but you also start waiting for the whole rear-end assembly to come clawing it’s way out from under the truck and leave you behind. I think I can honestly say I know what real
Torque feels like now. Making the flip at an exit to return back to the rest of the group, John makes the comment on how he’s running at about 100 less HP now, compared to what he had, but he’s working on getting that back shortly
(like 400 HP isn’t enough?).
Then came the fun part! As we roll up behind a newer Trans-Am in the hammer lane, who decides he’s going to leave this pick-up truck in the dust, rather than get out of the way. I watched the back end of the TA squat as John commented on its driver’s intent and then that turbo started singing. John had to let up a couple of times to keep from running over the TA while its drivers’ eyes seemed to glance in his mirror in disbelief. At over 120mph,
the TA still couldn’t get away! All he could see was a mirror full of
RAM! I can only imagine how damaged the TA driver’s ego was as John backed off in order to get slowed down for our exit. Back on the local roads, the CTD went right back to its mild mannered self. I commented on the fact that the
Dolly Parton sized goose bumps on my arms was not coming from the air conditioner, because my armpits were soaked! I guess the ear to ear wide grin on my face was a dead give away to the rest of the guys as I got out of the truck, but then again, I guess most of the guys who have ever taken a ride in the
“RED ROCKET” have had that same grin.
BTW, you will no longer see me referring to the Cummins 12 valve as being “Under-valved”. If you can get a diesel to run like this, I don’t care how many valves it’s got. Glad to hear Daniel didn't have to drive back home last night.
Thank you John P.
Thanks to Wes (1BIG44) and everyone else involved, for setting up a great get-together. I really enjoyed myself and I think everybody else did too. It was great for the ladies to have something to do too, even though I don't know how much money they spent. (And I'm probably better off
not knowing)
The guys said it looked like I had been bitten by the
Bombing Bug ... ... ..... They might be right!
Attention: TDR Forum Junkies 
