Goldmax: A Streetable Duramax Built for the Strip

Fulfilling The Need For Speed

Your pulse quickens as you break the beams and light the staging bulbs, the smell of burnt rubber wafts through the cab, white knuckles appear as your grip tightens on the wheel, your heart stops as the lights flash yellow and finally the green light beckons your foot to the floor. You’re barreling down the runway with the throttle pinned, a concrete barrier streaming by, and your rival slipping further away in your mirror. Once the thrill of drag racing enters your bloodstream, you can never truly stop.

Vince Neiderhauser of Seymour, Missouri, has had drag racing in his blood since he was a kid racing Camaros. The track was his playground and he showed up for any event he could find. When a neighbor asked him if he was going to race his Duramax work truck at an upcoming nearby diesel drag event, Neiderhauser’s “yes” was out of his mouth before he could even think. After putting his four- door diesel work truck though its paces as a daily driver and race winner; claiming victories at Scheid’s Diesel Extravaganza two years in a row; he knew it was time to build a more serious race/street truck. Turning the truck he used daily to run and operate his construction company into a track-only rig was not an option.

Growing up as a General Motors enthusiast, Neiderhauser knew he found the right truck when he located a 2007 GMC Sierra Classic 2500 HD. The Dura- max-powered standard cab was just begging to carve down the track at full tilt. And over the next eight months, it would go through a total overhaul to become a purebred champion.

Knowing that getting the power to the ground would be vital, Neiderhauser kicked off his project with the chassis. With his objective clearly in mind to create a streetable drag racer, his first act on his new acquisition was to drop the rear six inches and bolt on a set of Cal- Tracs traction bars to ensure grip for the future race rig.

He knew he’d have to beef up the differentials and make sure all four wheels could plant the power on take-off, so he opted for a Yukon Grizzly Locker with a 3.73 gear ratio for both front and rear differentials. To further hone the stance of his truck and tighten up its stability as it roars down the track, he installed Rancho RS 9000 XL shocks at all four corners, allowing some adjustability without breaking the bank. Having a leveled ride and getting the power efficiently to the wheels wouldn’t matter if he’d kept the stock rubber as his contact surface. Know- ing this, he wrapped his Ultra Motorsports 17×10 wheels with sticky (but DOT legal) P390/40R17 M&H Racemaster rubber to hold the road both on the track, and on the street.

With the Duramax ready to ride the rails of any asphalt available, Neider- hauser turned his attention to the engine. Along with the condition of the rest of the truck on purchase, the motor was in great shape. But in order to make the kind of power needed to be a real competitor at major diesel drag events, the engine would need to undergo a significant upgrade.

With the craftsmanship of his friends at Eagle Machine in Buffalo, Missouri, the 6.6L Duramax was bored and honed to run .020-over Mahle pistons paired with a set of Carrillo rods. The entire rotating assem- bly was also precision balanced before being installed in the Duramax block. Continuing their engine work, Eagle Ma- chine resurfaced the heads and did a valve job. To further streamline the engine compartment, he slimmed down to a single RedTop Optima battery and installed a smaller fabricated aluminum radiator overflow tank.

On the fuel side, an AirDog 165 fuel system was outfitted to keep supplying the juice. Knowing the importance of air- flow both in and out, Neiderhauser went for a compound turbo setup, rebuilding his original LBZ turbo and adding a larger S480, both running BatMoWheels. To expel the burnt gases as efficiently as possible, a PPE exhaust manifold and up- pipes are used in addition to custom ex- haust plumbing for the S480, which dumps the exhaust to an MBRP exhaust system and tip. To control the beast of an engine that the crew at Eagle Machine had created, he loaded tunes from a PPE Xcel- erator programmer.

To handle the powerful engine, Neider- hauser needed his six-speed Allison trans- mission to be bumped up a notch or two, which is where his friend Mike Bodine came into play. He rebuilt the transmission with a PPE kit to upgrade the clutches and internals to handle the demands of drag racing with a high-power diesel engine. The flex plate and torque converter were both pulled and swapped for SFI-ap- proved PPE Billet race models. No weak links would be tolerated in this race ready build-up.

With the truck’s guts ready for combat, Neiderhauser knew it was finally time to make the exterior match the ferocity of the beast’s heart. Ozark Bodyworks in Ozark, Missouri, was his choice to finish the overhaul of the GMC. Adding an aggressive look while letting in more air to the engine, he had a fully functioning ram air Good Hood from Keystone Restyling installed. A subtle touch to the exterior was the sleek roll pan, eliminating the for- mer shelf bumper. Enwrapping the entire rig in gold paint (minus the two aggressive black stripes atop the hood) inspired the name, “Goldmax,” which is now synony- mous with victory!

While in the process of sharpening the looks of his rig, Neiderhauser opted to keep the interior simple, only adding a dual gauge pod to feed him more informa- tion as he carves down the track. The pod holds a pair of Auto Meter digital Ultra Lite gauges to monitor boost and EGT. He also has a fuel pressure gauge mounted atop the gauge cluster in direct view. He wanted to keep the interior intact to enable him to use the truck on the street in comfort while still being able to trounce competition a quarter-mile at a time. The truck is a racer at heart as he did decide to forgo some creature comforts such as A/C in the name of weight savings, but the manual windows roll down just fine and it’s plenty fast to create some airflow in the small cab.

In just over eight months of build time, Neiderhauser created a truck that he could not only race and win at just about any NHRDA or Diesel Motorsports events, and any other local drags he could find, but also be a streetable driver. After the engine was first running, he was able to drive the truck to and from his job sites, breaking in the powerful new engine. For those long haul trips to events, longtime friend and owner of Wildcat Rental, Scott Estes provided him with whatever the newest trailer he had on his construction rental lot to get the Goldmax wherever it needed to go.

Weighing more than 6,000 pounds and running an impressive 11.56 quarter- mile time at 117 mph, the rushing gold D-Max is a competitive and streetable truck making more than 650 horsepower according to estimators. This truck is a true testament to the addicting love diesel brands its fans with from the first time you plant your foot to the floor and hear that turbo spool. DW