2025 Ram HD Cummins Diesel Borrows Old Racing Tech to Make More Power

By Brett Foote - August 20, 2025

Banks Performance teamed up with Cummins to develop the side draft intake manifold 24 years ago, and that tech is still used in the 2025 Ram HD.

The trio of automakers selling heavy-duty trucks in the U.S. have long been engaged in a war centered around not only peak output, but also, hauling and towing capacity. The result are trucks that can pull things we could previously only dream of, and few actually do. But while much of this has been accomplished using modern technology, perhaps the most interesting thing about the latest version of the Cummins diesel engine present in the 2025 Ram HD lineup is the fact that it utilizes tech first developed nearly a quarter-century ago.

That technology – the side draft intake manifold – was first created by Banks Performance back in 2001 as a way to extract more power out of its Dodge Dakota land speed racer, as founder Gale Banks explains in this new video. Banks came up with the idea after meeting up with John Stang at a conference back then, who at the time was in charge of running Cummins’ skunkworks team. The two started talking, and Banks found out that Stang and his team were working on a new V8 engine and a common rail version of the 5.9-liter powerplant.

This prompted Banks to ask Stang if he’d like to see a common rail diesel-powered pickup hit the 300 mile-per-hour mark, and as one might imagine, he was indeed interested. At the time, Banks had its Streamliner land speed racer that had already hit 382 mph with a more conventional supercharged V8, so such a thing certainly seemed possible. At the time, Cummins wasn’t in the best financial shape and needed some positive press, so after further discussion, the duo decided to build a pickup truck and attempt to reset the record books in that manner.

Cummins supplied Banks with a couple of its prototype dyno engines, one of which had a larger turbo making around 402 horsepower, after which the latter company set out to extract even more. They quickly discovered that airflow was a bit opportunity, and wound up modifying the head and ditching the stock intake in favor of a side draft piece. The results were quite impressive – this new combo laid down 540 horsepower on the dyno, right off the bat.

The folks at Cummins were shocked by this development, but Banks wasn’t finished – rather, the company played around with the timing and fuel calibration, ultimately getting 735 horsepower out of the diesel mill at around 3,100 rpm. Banks installed the engine in its Dakota, used the truck to pull a trailer to the Bonneville Salt Flats, and immediately broke the FIA record for World’s Fastest Diesel Pickup on its first attempt, eventually scoring a best two-way average speed of 217.306 mph.

That same truck later went on the Hot Rod Power Tour and visited every Cummins facility in the U.S., and the rest, well, is history. The same sort of side draft intake technology has been used in various forms ever since – including on the 2025 Ram HD version of that diesel – and as one might imagine, Banks is now working on improving that unit, too.