As the builder, owner and driver of the fastest Power Stroke powered diesel dragster Dan Snyder and his Carmichaels, PA based Snyder Performance Engineering team had high hopes for their rookie year in Ultimate Callout Challenge competition. Working with his family, friends and the shop team along with the help from their sponsors including CP Carrillo, Diesel Performance Converters, Exergy, Fluidampr, Fuelab, Hoffman Auto Body, Ontork and Vibrant they were shooting for the win or at least to finish as the top finishing Ford Power Stroke truck with their freshly built 2010 Super Duty competition truck.
Unfortunately, the 2017 UCC turned out to be a very large challenge for Snyder and his SPE team. The first day of competition on the drag strip he was caught without a pass in the books and a late round oil down that wasn’t cleaned up before the rain came causing him to start the competition with a goose egg on the score card. But rather than tuck his tail and head back to the shop, he persevered with his gorgeous 2010 Ford Super Duty entering the remaining competitions. Snyder struggled to put down the number he wanted on the UCC chassis dyno but still managed to deliver 1,400 HP to the rollers. Moving to the pull track the next day things didn’t get much better when he struggled on his first hook then caught fire on the second hook. The combined results left the SPE team in 21st position for the overall.
Needless to say, Snyder and his team are out for redemption at the 2018 UCC. Their deep blue Ford is completely built in house including not only the engine, transmission and exotic triple turbo setup, but also the chassis and even the beautiful paint work on the Super Duty. The truck is powered by a 2017 7.0L Scorpion 6.7L-based Power Stroke engine with a triple turbo setup using a pair of S488s sitting out in front of the engine drawing in air from the atmosphere. The 488s feed into a single valley mounted S588 turbo to make sure that the big Ford has more than enough air for their power desires. To get the power from the engine to the drive line Snyder relies on a heavily modified Ford 4R100 transmission that they built in house to hold up to the rigorous demands of UCC competition. They also configured the chassis to accept solid suspension and a DRW rear axle for the sled pull.
While 2017 did not go as planned, Snyder and his SPE team will have had a year to plot their UCC redemption by the time they hit the track again at the Lucas Oil Raceway at Indianapolis on May 4th-6th 2018. No doubt he will have the gremlins worked out of the truck and it will perform up to his hopes and expectations to make the large contingent of Power Stroke Ford fans proud. What kind of difference will a year make; we imagine that it will be a big difference but we’ll all have to wait until May to see what Snyder will bring to the table in their sophomore season.