Courtesy of Engine Builder
If you’re an avid drag racing fan, or more specifically a diesel drag racing fan, you’ve likely heard the name Ryan Milliken thrown around before. For the last decade, the Florida native has pioneered the diesel drag racing landscape and campaigned a few incredibly fast machines that have made their way around the racing news outlets. All the while, he runs his owns business, Hardway Performance, and operates a track, Emerald Coast Dragway.
Hardway Performance is a specialty diesel performance shop that handles just about anything from stock to 3,000 horsepower builds. That’s essentially how every diesel shop champions their business, but for Milliken and Hardway Performance, the proof is in the pudding. Look no farther than his two most recent diesel drag car builds that took the racing scene by storm.
A few years back, Milliken purchased Mickey Tessneer’s (Mickey’s Chassis Works) “Green Reaper,” a ’66 Chevy Nova with a big block Chevy engine under hood. With visions of radial-tire racing in the near future, he began the planning process for a diesel engine swap. That eventually led him to Freedom Racing Engines, the diesel engine shop that would put together a beefy 6.8L Cummins engine to Milliken’s standards.
