There was a time when style trumped aerodynamics. Vehicles had curves and great lines, and every year, there were enough changes that you could easily identify what year the vehicle was built. Today, hundreds of thousands of dollars are spent refining a design to make it as attractive as possible, without losing aerodynamics. Then that design is kept pretty much the same without any major changes for years. Only by knowing what decal changes or very subtle differences to look for, can you possibly recognize what year a vehicle is. Well, that’s not the case with Max Kirtley’s 1978 Li’l Red Express. A little over 7000 of these trucks were produced between 1978-79.

“I wanted a classic diesel truck that hauls the mail, looks original, and is street legal,” says Kirtley. This “Cummins Express” certainly does that running a best of 10.04 seconds at 130 mph in the quarter mile. “My favorite part about racing is the light and the first 200 feet,” says Kirtley. The truck has ran sub 1.4 60-foot times many times.

Prior to Kirtley purchasing the li’l Red Express truck, George Cobb out of Ohio had originally set the truck up for drag racing in an 11.50 Index class. Cobb had done all of the chassis work, built the roll cage, built the engine, and performed the transmission swap. Kirtley acquired the truck in 2009, “The truck was a bit rough when we got it but the bones were solid and it had tons of character,” says Kirtley. After racing it for about six months a freeze plug blew out at the traps and spun the truck. The truck ended up going into the wall at around 125 mph. Over the next six months Kirtley, Tom Brady and Daniel Burks of Southern Sportz Racing worked to restore the truck to where it is today.

It is obvious that Kirtley pays attention to detail. There are custom touches to almost every aspect of this truck.

“We got the truck home and immediately set to work on it,” says Kirtley. The engine was pulled and sent to Manning Motorsports of Leander, Texas. There, the engine was torn down and completely rebuilt. They retained the factory crank, shot peened and balanced the rods, installed a girdle, and then opted for marine-style pistons that were fly cut to lower compression.

Kirtley picked up the short-block and started acquiring the top-end parts. He started with a Hamilton Cams 12-valve cylinder head. He then smoothed and polished the runners and handed it over to Core Diesel along with Manning Motorsports’ complete valvetrain package. Once the head was set into place, ARP 625 studs and fasteners were chosen to hold down the assembly, and a custom set of rockers were then installed.

With the long-block assembled, a 13mm P-pump, built and tuned by Seth Farrell at Farrell Diesel Service, was installed. The pump consists of a custom high-rate cam and delivery valves along with the 13mm plungers. A front billet cover and side tappet cover was then added. An adjustable timing gear is used to dial in the fuel to exactly where he needs it. The pump feeds fuel to six 5x.022 injectors built by Weston Shupe at Infinite Performance. With this much fuel, a lot of air is needed. So, Kirtley called the guys at High Tech Turbo (HTT) for a custom 82mm S400 with a 1.25 A/R T-4 turbine housing and a custom HTT Intercooler.

Weston, also, supplied a T4 spool flange (basically a spool flange is a gate. It directs all flow to one volute in the turbine housing until boost pressure is at a set amount. Then it opens directing the exhaust to both volutes like normal. This basically makes the turbo perform very well on the low end, but yet still flow enough for the top end). With the spool flange, Kirtley is able to still drive the truck around on the street and is able to spool the charger without a huge stall converter at the line.

Knowing a single charger will only supply so much air, Kirtley called the guys at Southern Sportz Racing to have them build a custom Nitrous Express 3 stage nitrous system and tune it for him. The nitrous is injected just after the JGS blow off valve, but before the intercooler. When the air leaves the intercooler, it is met with water being injected by a Scheid Diesel water injection system. From there, the air passes an air shut-off valve and into the custom intake manifold built by Manning Motorsports. This combination lends itself very well to and is capable of producing around 1,200 horsepower and 1,800 lb-ft of torque.

Making this much power, it is important to have an exhaust system that can keep up. So, a Steed Speed exhaust manifold routes the exhaust from the cylinder head into the turbo, and a custom aluminum exhaust handles everything the turbine housing spits out, along with what bypasses the turbo via the external JGS wastegate. The aluminum exhaust and turbo piping was tig welded by Stubbs Racing. The truck originally was running compounds, but with the three stages of nitrous and a trick turbocharger, the truck has more power than the compounds and he was able to pull almost 200 pounds off the front suspension.

To handle the 1,800 lb-ft of torque, Kirtley knew that he needed a stout transmission. So, he turned to the guys at Calvin’s Diesel to have a 47RH built. With all of the goodies installed — like billet shafts and high-performance clutches, he opted for a Diesel Performance Converter  four-disc torque converter. To control everything inside the cab, a Hurst Quarter Stick shifter was installed.

A custom pinion brake with dual Wilwood calipers was installed.

Out back, a Dana 60 rearend with a Strange Engineering spool turn a set of Moser axles. A 3.31:1 gear ratio seems to be the perfect ratio for the Hoosier 32×14.5 drag slicks mounted on Weld Pro Star 15-inch wheels.

Luckily for Kirtley, the truck was already back halved with coilover shocks at the rear of the truck. The front suspension uses factory control arms, but the springs are out of a newer Dodge 3/4-ton, as is the steering box. To get the truck to stop, Kirtley and Southern Sportz came up with a plan using a few different manufacturers’ parts.

It all starts with the factory brake pedal that activates a hydro-boost unit out of a Ford F250 Super Duty. Up front, the stock disc brakes work just fine, but in the rear, dual Wilwood Engineering calipers were chosen at each wheel. This is a drastic improvement, but the truck still needed more braking in order to launch at 20-30 psi. A custom pinion brake with dual Wilwood calipers was chosen to keep the tires planted at spool up. A line lock was installed, and lastly, custom brake lines were fabricated to get all six Wilwood calipers to engage.

After the wreck, Murillo’s Body Shop in Houston, Texas did their magic. The guys went through everything including straightening the frame and replacing the damaged panels. They even repaired the bumper and fiberglass cowl. Next, the truck was prepped for paint and then primed. In the end, Dodge Viper Red was the color of choice. Once they were done, they buffed the paint and added the decals. With everything looking new, Kirtley turned his attention to the woodwork on the bed. He spent the next couple of weeks stripping, sanding, and sealing the Red Oak on the sides, tailgate, and bed floor.

With this showpiece Li’l Red Express almost finished, Kirtley handed the truck over to Oddball Turbo and Performance. They completely rewired the truck, built custom carbon fiber dash inserts, and installed Auto Meter Phantom gauges.

After everything was finally together, Kirtley decided it was time to drive to the DMV, let them inspect it, and register the truck. The Li’l Red Express passed and does its share of street miles. To top everything off, he got a custom license plate; 100PSI. He can deliver our mail any day!