Hyper Blog

If you're anywhere around Fayetteville, you already know this truck. Antimatter Blue. Side exit exhaust you hear three streets before you see it. A 2024 F150 that has absolutely no business running the numbers it runs.

What you might not know is that for Anthony Ross and his father Rob, this truck was never just a build. It was an experiment — a rolling, 977-horsepower question: how far can you actually push a stock block and stock transmission before something gives?

We now have an answer. And it's worth writing down, because it cost a crankshaft to learn.

Let's Cut Straight to the End

The crank broke.

Not on the first hard pass. Not on some fluke. It broke after 150+ passes at the track and 100+ dyno runs dialing in shift points. This truck was used — hard, repeatedly, and at full power — before anything let go.

Here's the takeaway, and if you read nothing else in this article, read this:

The 10-rib Whipple system works, and it works with proper belt wrap. But it will break your crank if you don't have the support for it.

The belt tension a 10-rib setup puts into the nose of the crank is a real, cumulative load. Over enough passes, it finds the weak point.

If you're running a 10-rib blower system, double key your crank or run an available crank support. Not eventually — before you make the passes.

That's the kind of lesson you either pay for yourself, or you read about in somebody else's build. We'd rather it be this one.

The Build

Power

The heart of this truck is a Whipple Gen 5 3.0L supercharger system — specifically the Gen 5, not the Gen 6 — running a non-ported blower. It's paired with Whipple's billet throttle body upgrade and the intake that comes with the kit.

Tuning was handled in-house by Jason at Hypermotive. With the 10-rib kit and a 3.5 upper pulley, we settled in at roughly 18 psi of boost — good for 977 RWHP.

Fuel

This is where the truck is genuinely overbuilt, and on purpose:

• Injector Dynamics ID1300x injectors
• Fore Innovations fuel system with triple TI Automotive 274 pumps

Combined with the factory direct injection system, this setup can support considerably more than the Gen 5 Whipple is capable of asking for. That headroom is deliberate — it means the fuel system isn't the thing that has to change when the power goes up.

At the track, the truck runs a consistent E75–E80.

Cooling

This is the unsung hero of the whole combination.

• VMP expansion tank
• Forced Induction Interchillers Stage 2 kit

That chiller setup holds air intake temps down in the 60s. If you've ever watched a supercharged truck lose 40 horsepower over three passes on a hot day, you understand why that matters. Stable, cold intake air means the truck lives in what we call "boost weather" all year long — the tune doesn't have to back down because the ambient did.

Transmission cooling is currently a basic kit. That's a known item on the list, and it gets upgraded with a proper filter system when the engine and transmission come back out.

Suspension

• Ridetech 3/5 coilover kit with traction bars and rear sway bar
• Kelltrac upgraded coilovers and rear shocks — more usable front travel and significantly more capability out back

The next likely move here is Ridetech's new 4-link rear suspension, which would be the logical step for a truck trying to plant this much power consistently.

Exhaust

Kooks long tube headers into a Corsa Extreme side exit system.

This combination is loud. There's no soft way to say it. But it's the good kind of loud — the tone is excellent, and somehow the in-cabin drone stays genuinely tolerable. It sounds like exactly what it is.

What It Runs

Best pass to date: 9.9 at 140+ mph.

And that was with the transmission flaring.

Which brings us to the other half of the lesson. These factory transmissions have a hard time behind high-horsepower, heavy trucks — and this truck has never given it any help. Zero weight savings have been done. No stripping, no lightweight anything. It's a full-weight F150 running nines.

Between the pass count, the weight, and the power level, the transmission was living on borrowed time right alongside the crank.

What's Next

The rebuild is where the lessons get applied.

Short block:

• L&M sleeved, reinforced and prepped Gen 4 short block
• Diamond pistons
• Boostline rods
• ARP hardware throughout
• Crank double keyed, paired with a new crank support system — the fix for the exact failure that got us here

Heads & valvetrain:

• Heads staying non-ported to start — one variable at a time
• PAC 1281x valve springs, so the engine can safely see 9,000 RPM

Transmission:

• Built by Midnight Performance out of Houston, TX
• Suncoast torque converter
• Billet flex plate

Boost: Once it's all back together, the truck gets pulleyed down to approximately 23–24 psi — with the goal of running low 9s and, just as importantly, lasting a couple of seasons at that power level.

Because making the number once is easy. Making it 150 times is the actual challenge, and that's the part this build has been about from the beginning.

Stay Tuned

Big thanks to Anthony and Rob for letting this truck be the test mule. Every hard lesson it handed us is one our customers don't have to learn the expensive way.

We're genuinely excited to see what this thing does once it's back together.

Want to Build Something Like This?

Whether you're planning a full send like the Ross truck or you just want some solid, well-chosen bolt-ons for your daily, Hypermotive has you covered — from basic add-ons to complete forged combinations and in-house dyno tuning.

Call or email us today and let's talk about your goals.