Racers always find a way to race; just as pullers will always find something to hook up to. So, when Nathanael Snyder was trying to promote an upcoming race (Little River Throwdown II) he happened to call Jeff Duncan from Top Frog Diesel-N-Gas. Duncan a lifelong drag racing, was excited about supporting the race and told Snyder, “I will build something to race!” Whether he realized that the race was only 56 days away or not, he is a man of his word.
Duncan discussed it with his partner and the stars aligned. They recently had a customer walk away from their truck because they couldn’t pay their bill. So, that gave them a donor vehicle to work with. Not wanting to spend a ton of money investing in building a full blown race truck to run mid pack, they opted to build something unique and cool; something that was light weight and would be quick. What they ended up doing was buying a ’23 Altered T buck out of Arkansas.
The previous owner didn’t know how to bring the chassis up to tech and wanted to sell it at a very affordable price. “We are all certified welders,” said Duncan. So, he was more than happy to purchase the ’23. When it arrived, it was off to the races!
They ended up taking the 6.0 Power Stroke still connected to the 5R110 TorqShift and the entire wiring harness out of the ’03 Ford that it originally resided in. Since they just repaired it and it was running great, they didn’t touch it. Instead, they focused on the chassis.
After mocking the engine up and making sure that everything fit right, they began the process of updating the chassis and adding additional cross bracing to support the heavy powertrain. With the chassis updated and the engine mounted, they set off to clean up the wiring harness and route everything. They kept the factory dash, OBDII connector, fuel panel, ECM, heck, they even kept the head light switch (future plans are to make the ’23 street legal).
Once the engine would start and run, they set off to make sure the engine would stay cool and the boosted air wouldn’t be scorching hot as it entered the cylinders. So, they grabbed a radiator out of a ’33 Ford and plumbed it to work with the Power Stroke. Then they grabbed a Dodge Neon SRT 4 intercooler and mounted in in front of the radiator.
The deal Duncan made with all of his guys was this, “you help me built it, you can drive it!” So, the guys anxious to have some fun all chipped in and helped build the ’23. From when they started building to when they hit the track for the inaugural pass, was a mere 55 days.
Unfortunately, their first shake down pass wasn’t perfect. But that is to be expected for any freshly built drag vehicle. Duncan blew the CAC (Charge Air Cooler) tube shortly into his “easy” pass and managed to coast to a low 11 second run.
While in the pits, it began to rain at the Little River Throwdown II. So, they didn’t get a chance to make any additional passes but Duncan being a racer, will get this dialed in and be running low 10’s or even lower in no time.
Stay tuned as we will keep an eye out for the Top Frog Racing team at upcoming events!