Sleeper Sunday: Turbo Diesel Rat Rod Truck, Edition

August 7, 2016

Okay, so rat rods aren’t really sleepers. What they can be, is confusing to someone in a brand new, highly polished muscle car who doesn’t know what a rat rod is. We’ve already had the debate about whether a rat rod was a restomod or not, and I believe they are. Remember, they’ve been restored and modified—they just don’t look like polished cars. In fact, the main point is for them to go against the grain. Make no mistake, though, they do run well, and a lot of them are very fast.

turbo diesel rat rod — Turbo Diesel rat rod

Personally speaking, I love them. And this next one is an old, turbo-diesel powered truck some would call hideous. While watching the video, I found myself trying to figure out how the driver can see through all of the black smoke—but he clearly can because he consistently propels the rat into the high elevens. What’s more, this truck is enough to make a Prius driver puke, with all of those emissions.

Being that he put this eleven second truck together with the “stuff he had laying around the shop,” that’s pretty awesome. Perhaps you’re wondering what propels this beast down the 1320? A Cummins 5.9 diesel engine (360 cubic inches) with a Switchblade turbo that forces 47 pounds of boost into the manifold. That ain’t too shabby!

That combo turns into a guestimated 500-600 horsepower, and about 1,000 lb-ft of torque. As we should all know, turbo diesels are torque monsters so it should come as no surprise that it is so high.

However, I think the best upgrade on this truck, is the trailer hitch. Hey, whenever you can drive what you’re racing to the track and haul the tools, tires, spare parts, etc, that you’ll need to fix it if it breaks, that’s a great combination.

Anyway, I’ve yapped my jaws enough, here’s a video of this beast in action:

Alright car-junkies, what did you think about the rat rod truck? Did you think it was badass? Or, did you think it was a turd on wheels? Let us know in the comments.

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