Inside, the Ram has received a cursory upgrade. Wood-panel inserts set the customized tone, but the standout feature is the home-built console. Dennis wanted dual buckets instead of the standard bench, so when he removed the original center seat section and drop-down console, he filled it with a custom centerpiece that includes armrests.
Although most of the attention was on the truck's aesthetics, Dennis didn't want an all-show, no-go beauty queen. To match performance to looks, he massaged the 360 Magnum's intake, installed a Magnum Plus billet roller cam and lifters, Mopar Performance R/T computer, headers, Gibson Super Truck mufflers with custom dual 2.5-inch pipes, and juiced it all with an Optima dry-cell. The newfound power goes through the stock auto tranny to a 3.90:1 Sure-Grip rear via a customized 4-inch polished aluminum Dana driveshaft.
It must have worked. Dennis says, "The following summer I got four speeding tickets in five months."
Speed aside, the radical Ram has also earned its share of notoriety on the show field. In addition to awards and trophies garnered since the truck's near-completion in summer 1998, last year Dennis took the First Place Modified Truck trophy and the Best of Show Truck award at the '02 Mopar Nationals.
Just goes to prove that not all pavement scrapers run on rice-squeezings. A quality shaved and dropped Ram like Dennis Day's can knock the saki out of imports without breaking a sweat. Ditto for the brand-Xers.