Over the past few years, we have talked about the Epling Family Dodge Challenger SRT® Hellcat multiple times, as the black muscle car known as “007” set and reset a handful of quarter-mile records. The Epling family was the first to put an SRT Hellcat car in the 8-second range back in October of 2017, followed by being the first to put an SRT Hellcat car in the 7-second range in August of 2019. They were not the first SRT Hellcat-based team in the 6-second range, but with their best time of 6.96, they hold the record for the quickest quarter-mile time by an SRT Hellcat car.
The Epling family clearly knows how to make a Dodge Challenger get down the track in a hurry, but that isn’t the extent of their abilities. The 007 Challenger is owned by Leon Epling and driven by his son, Jason, while Jason’s son, Logan, has been working alongside his dad and grandfather throughout the progression of the world’s quickest SRT Hellcat car. In that time, he learned how to build a fast HEMI® engine, but he also has experience in building some very fast diesel Ram trucks. He has put his experience in building Gen III HEMI engines and Cummins Turbo Diesel engines to work with his new performance shop – Epling Motorsports.
Not surprisingly, his personal Dodge Ram 3500 has been built to showcase the abilities of his shop and it is already setting records. Back in September, Logan Epling and his 2.5-ton heavy-duty truck ran a 5.28 at 140.707 miles per hour in the 8th mile, claiming the record for the quickest quad cab Dodge or Ram truck in the world. If you aren’t familiar with how 8th mile timing translates to the quarter-mile, a 5.28 8th mile time will often put a vehicle in the lower-8-second range in the quarter-mile.
Due to the size and weight of these trucks, coupled with the speeds being reached in the 8th mile, most big trucks stick to the 8th mile rather than the quarter-mile. However, Logan’s record-setting 8th mile run was made on a quarter-mile track, so he did get a quarter-mile time, although he had let off just beyond the 8th mile marker – coasting to the end of the track. He got to the 8th mile line with so much momentum that this 2006 Dodge Ram coasted for half of the track and still ran an 8.838 at just 102 miles per hour. That should give you an idea of how hard it is charging to get to the 8th mile stripe in 5.28 seconds when a 5,000-pound truck can coast into the high-8-second range.
What makes this even more impressive is the fact that this record-setting run was the first of the night, right off of the trailer. Epling expected to go quicker on the next pass, but he had a fuel pump failure that ended his night after one run and on that run, he spun a bit on the launch. In other words, this truck will go faster in the near future, with Logan expecting 4s with the current setup. While the record run was made on a more conservative tune – around 2,100 horsepower – he can turn it up to the area of 3,000 horsepower with some tuning tweaks.
You can watch the record run in the video below.
Record-Setting Dodge Ram Details
As you might expect, getting a 2006 Dodge Ram 3500 to run a low-5-second 8th mile time takes a whole lot of work inside and out.
Under the hood is a 6.7-liter Cummins Turbo Diesel engine that has been sleeved down to a 5.9-liter bore, built and tuned by Logan Epling. The engine is equipped with a Forced Induction 88-millimeter GT55 turbocharger, 500% fuel injectors, a pair of CP3 injection pumps and a Nitrous Express nitrous oxide system running on the Maximizer 5 controller. All of that diesel power is channeled to all four wheels by an Epling Motorsports competition-built 48RE transmission with Suncoast internals, while a set of Holeshot wheels wrapped in Hoosier 28×10.5 slicks put the power to the ground.
When you look at Logan Epling’s Dodge Ram 3500 from the front or side, it looks pretty much stock, shy of the wheel/tire fitment and the hole in the hood. This truck has all of the factory steel body panels with the only major change to the sheet metal being the lack of the bed floor. When looking through the open cargo area, you can also see that the rear frame section has been replaced with a custom tube setup, helping to reduce weight and improve stability under power. Inside, it has the factory dashboard, door panels and front seats, but the rear seating assembly was removed when the cage was installed. While some things have been removed, this Dodge Ram 3500 still weighs almost 5,200 pounds when it tears down the drag strip, sprinting from a stop to 140 miles per hour in just over 5 seconds – and Logan Epling plans to improve on that.
