Breaking from the Pack: Mopar Ellie’s “Lonestar” Lowered ’14 Ram
In a world where diversity is needed on so many levels, it’s good to come across women who are involved in car culture. There are no rules that say this is only a hobby for men and it’s very exciting to see females with kick ass vehicles. As you can see, Ellie Moreno, AKA Mopar Ellie, has proven that not only can women get involved, but they can also create sweet rides as well.
Early Days
Ellie got her influence very early in life as she grew up around a family of gearheads. Her father worked at a body shop and her mother owned an ‘86 Chevy C10. With both parents into customizing trucks, Ellie was destined to follow in their footsteps. Her older sister Claudia even purchased an ’05 RST Chevy Silverado during her senior year of high school. Claudia has since customized her truck and Ellie was there to witness her success firsthand.
Going Against All Odds
Though custom trucks were in her blood, a few things in life prevented Ellie from getting her own rig earlier on. However, when the time was right, she was on the search for a truck and wanted to break away a bit from her family of Chevy fans. She grew found of Ram pickups and decided to get one for herself. While looking online, she discovered a few Ram R/T trucks for sale at a local dealership in Ontario, CA but decided to get a lower trim level truck and customize it the way she wanted. She found this ’14 Ram Express with 5.7L engine and 6-speed transmission that had spent time doing agriculture work in Liberty, TX in a previous life.
Racing Tendencies
Once Ellie had a truck of her own, she started going events like Truck Wars and drag racing at Irwindale Speedway. While getting heavy into the truck scene, Ellie found inspiration and the direction she wanted to go with her Ram. She also got bored of watching others run down the drag strip and took a shot at it herself. She quickly became addicted to the sport, but found out that her truck needed some performance modifications in order for it to be competitive (and more fun to drive).
Performance Gains
Getting Ellie’s truck up to speed, she added an Airaid cold air intake and a billet catch can to help the engine breath better. Then, the PCM was reprogrammed by Hemifever Tuning to unlock some hidden potential of the engine and drivetrain. To help release the spent gases, a set of JBA long tube headers were attached to the engine. The exhaust now runs through a custom set of pipes and Magnaflow mufflers installed by Empire Exhaust and Custom. To help this truck jump off the line is a limited-slip differential with 4.10 gears installed by JP Performance.
Looking the Part
With the truck performing better, Ellie decided to improve the appearance of it. She picked this truck based on a number of things including the black painted exterior. Since she thought the truck looked like a shark, Ellie had Endless Auto Salon add a camo style wrap with a shark-like mouth and WWII fighter plane pinup to call out the truck’s name. Then, Marky Drops give it a 4/6 suspension drop and Cquence added a set of drilled and slotted brakes along with a set of PosiQuiet pads.
Upping the Game
Continuing with the exterior styling, Ellie felt that the factory 20-inch wheels no longer fit with the truck's new look. She decided that her truck needed a bit of an upgrade a set of billet wheels for some extra shine. To make it happen, Ellie contacted Los Angeles Billets to get a set of 22x9 and 22x10 Intro Pro Classic billet wheels that were custom made to fit this truck. Ellie is also a big fan of Nitto tires and fitted the wheels with a set of 275/45R22 (front) and 305/40R22 (rear) Nitto NT420V tires. Not only does Ellie love the interesting, unique and asymmetrical tread pattern on these tires, but the tread design also helps her keep grip during hard launches and in any weather conditions.
Inner Beauty
Once the truck was looking good on the outside, Ellie moved her focus to the interior. Starting with the stereo, it was upgraded with components from Pioneer in order to blast her tunes during drives. Then, to make this more like a premium model, she upgraded the basic seating with a set of leather upholstered bucket seats from an R/T model. To really dress up the inside, Ellie had OC Auto Style to add black leather and suede throughout the entire cab.
Ready to Rumble
Now that this truck has been drastically modified, Ellie is ready to lay the smackdown on anyone that challenges her skills down the drag strip while looking good. Though she broke away from her family of Chevy fans, they are proud of her accomplishments.
Click here to see a beautiful, slammed restomod '50 Chevy pickup.
