Morgan Evans’ Hurricane-Powered Dodge D150 is Racing Toward the 8s
When Morgan Evans popped the hood of her 1987 Dodge Ram D150 at 2025 Roadkill Nights, showcasing her new single turbo setup, we knew that it was going to be quicker than it was when she won the Direct Connection Grudge Match in 2024. Evans continued racing the classic Dodge pickup with relatively stock Hurricane power throughout 2024, running in the mid-to-low 10-second range in the quarter-mile. With the swap to the big single turbo and a larger intercooler setup, it was obvious that the truck would be quicker, but we didn’t know how quick until she walked out on Tom Bailey’s Dodge Durango. Bailey didn’t have a great run on that practice run, but Evans’ D150 rocketed down the track like never before.
Morgan Evans came into the 2025 Roadkill Nights Powered by Dodge Direct Connection Grudge Match as the odds-on favorite thanks to her team’s experience with the Hurricane engine and her experience in getting down a slick street-based track with her 1987 Dodge truck. When she beat Bailey in qualifying, she put the rest of the Grudge Match racers on notice, and while several teams had very quick cars, Evans blasted to the class win for the second year in a row.
The day after winning the 2025 Roadkill Nights Direct Connection Grudge Match, Morgan Evans and her 1987 Dodge Ram D150 entered the Michigan Miles Drag and Drive event. This event covered 1,200 miles and five drag strips over the course of five days, starting at Darana (formerly Milan), making stops at Mid-Michigan Motorplex (rained out), Northern Michigan Dragway and Ubly Dragway before finishing up back at Darana. Due to the rules, Evans could not run quicker than 6.40 in the 8th mile, so they loaded their 93-octane pump gas tune, limiting the output to around 600 horsepower at the wheels. With that output, Evans and her D150 turned in times of 6.48, 6.48, 6.50 and 6.51, leading to an event average of 6.50 at 103 miles per hour. Using a very basic conversion table, a 6.50 8th mile leads to a quarter-mile time in the very low 10-second range … while she is running at about 75% capacity. Her average time allowed her to win Quickest 6 Cylinder vehicle in the event and during the cruising portion, she averaged about 24 miles per gallon!
After turning in her final official timeslip for the Michigan Miles event, she switched from pump gas to C16 race gas, loading the same tune that she used at Roadkill Nights. With this setup, which previously made 802 horsepower at the wheels, she laid down a 6.01 at 114 miles per hour. Low 6s in the 8th mile typically lead to quarter-mile times in the mid-9-second range.
During Michigan Miles, Dodge reached out to Evans to ask if she could show the truck with the Direct Connection display at the Woodward Dream Cruise, and it happened to work perfectly with her schedule.
“A couple days into our trip, Dodge asked if we would still be around for the Woodward Dream Cruise, which was ironically part of our Drag & Drive. That Saturday was a drive day entirely dedicated to all of us getting to experience the Dream Cruise. So they asked if we could come park the D150 in the Direct Connection tent, we said of course! It was a ton of fun getting to hang out with our Dodge friends and have some of the best seats in the house to experience the Dream Cruise! The next morning, we drove about an hour back to Milan/Darana to finish out the last day of racing.”
After running such solid 8th mile times in Michigan, the Torque N Tungsten team took their 1987 Dodge Ram D150 to their home track, Orlando Speed World, for test-and-tune. Unfortunately, it was a hot, humid day with rain on the horizon, so the density altitude was bad and so was the forecast, but Evans made the most of her time that day. On her first and only pass with the same tune from Roadkill Nights, she laid down a 9.39 at 140 miles per hour with a 1.37 60-foot time and a 5.95 8th mile time. That is not only her personal best in the quarter-mile, but it also sets the elapsed time world record for a vehicle powered by the Hurricane engine. Unfortunately, it began raining right after she finished her record-setting run, but running such a strong time in poor air gives her hope that an 8-second slip is coming in the near future.
You can watch the 9.39 run in the video below.
“Seeing that it went 9.39 in the peak of Florida summer makes us really excited to get back to the track. Our plan is to strap the D150 back on the dyno since it still has a little power on the table, get back to the track once the temps cool down a little bit, and shoot for that 8 second time slip.”
Finally, after getting home from MoParty, Evans and her team made some adjustments to the truck, adding a “hair more power”, switching to a radial tire and tweaking the suspension a bit. They then headed to Bradenton Motorsports Park for some testing, which led to three consecutive 9.00 runs – the quickest being a 9.004 at 146.75 miles per hour.
Based on the fact that she is just five thousandths of a second away from the 8s, the odds are good that Morgan Evans will be the first person to put a Hurricane-powered vehicle into the 8-second range later this year, but she might have some competition. John O’Malley, who built a Dodge Viper ACR for the Hurricane Grudge Match, recently ran a 9.50 at 144.53, setting the quarter-mile speed record (which Evans has reclaimed with her 9.004 run) for a Hurricane-powered vehicle. The Viper is obviously lighter and more aerodynamic, so added power will go a little further with O’Malley’s build than Evans’ full-sized truck, but with her success with the platform thus far, she is still the front-runner in the Hurricane engine race to 8s.
All images provided by Morgan Evans
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