In the little pocket of Peru, Ill., not 2 hours outside the city of Chicago, Julian Pontoja has mastered the classic and adventurous backyard American lifestyle. He even has a personal slogan, “You just gotta keep livin.’” Whether he’s riding dirt bikes and quads on packed-dirt and muddied tracks, fishing on hot sunny days, or traveling across the states, you’ll never catch him far from his custom diesel truck.

Working in the collision industry as a body technician, Julian grew up around cars and trucks his whole life, and he was captivated by roaring engines and screaming torque. He always found a sense of comfort and fascination by the chugging 1-5-4-2-6-3-7-8 sound of an American V8, and now he comfortably sits confident in his custom-modded 2010 RAM 2500 Laramie. But his journey didn’t begin with trucks. Julian’s mechanical story of building cars actually started when he was 17 years old with a Subaru STI WRX, which he built into a 750hp all-wheel drive beast.

“I love the speed and power,” Julian said, when talking about his STI.

But he bought his RAM when he was 18, and he hasn’t looked back since. And he decided to go with diesel for a very particular and justifiable reason.

“I picked diesel over gas because you just can’t get over the sound of a turbo and diesel motor,” said the technician.

Once Julian got his RAM 2500, he knew it wasn’t enough. No. He couldn’t settle for a beast when he knew there was the potential for a mechanical monster within.

“It was completely stock – a grandpa look as you should say,” he said.

But that didn’t limit his vision of what the truck could become in the slightest, and it got him motivated to build it to what it is today. Doing the custom work himself, Julian added a 7-inch BDS lift powder-coated white with new 24×14 KG1 wheels on 33×13.50 AMP’s with 2-inch spacers. Full color match, custom starlight headliner, full 5-inch turbo back exhaust, Wehrli Custom Fabrication intake pipes powder-coated blue cherry. Plus 38 WHO RUN IT LIGHTING white LED rock lights, and a set of Overkill Lighting wheel lights. He loves his truck, and gets mixed reactions for it when taking it to shows, saying that people either really love his build or just aren’t for it at all. But any negativity doesn’t deflate his passion for his work.

“The truck means a lot to me. It’s my first build, and something I’m very proud of.”

And Julian shows no sign of hitting the brakes on this first project of his, describing that he has plans for future mods to the truck like a second gen swap, an S467 turbo with a built transmission, and potentially a bigger lift and bigger wheels and tires as well.

“I’m super stoked for the outcome.”

Some of you may be thinking that going from a Subaru STI to a lifted diesel truck is an odd and unorthodox transition. After all, how often do you meet someone with a fully capable street racing car who switches to a celestially radiant colossus for a truck? But Julian elaborated that he felt himself naturally “drifting” into the truck scene.

“Deep down, I always wanted to be a part of it.”

But it doesn’t end there. His white angel has a black demon twin. Julian Pontoja is in an invested relationship with a woman, Jordyn Ciciora, who isn’t afraid to get some dirt on her hands either. From Homer Glen, Ill., she also works for a collision company and handles all of the insurance estimates that come through the company. But what makes Julian and Jordyn perfect for one another is that she also has her own RAM 2500 that she has made some custom modifications to as well!

She says she has been into trucks ever since she first started driving, detailing that a lot of her friends were into cars and trucks, which inevitably caused her to gravitate to having an invested interest as well. She started off with a 2015 RAM 1500 and had it for two years, but upon realizing that her transmission was about to “grenade on itself,” she started looking into diesels in 2018, saying that the economy was good for them, while also knowing she could do so much more to a diesel truck than she could with a gas truck. That’s when she got her diesel RAM 2500.

“I prefer diesel trucks over gas because of the sound you get, the capabilities over gas trucks, and all of the mods you can do. Financially, I think diesels are more expensive but they last so much longer if well taken care of,” Jordyn elaborated, explaining her choice to go diesel.

She enjoys working on her truck over the weekends while having a few handy Twisted Teas. And though she has never given her truck a name, there is usually some profanity involved on the occasion that something goes wrong with it. And though she says her build is very minimal as of right now, she loves the look of an all-black truck with polished wheels, and she is a “less is more” person with her build because she thinks it looks cleaner. Her truck is leveled on 24×14 KG1 Eddy’s with the stretched street tire look with 2-inch spacers, and she’s looking forward to her plans of doing a second gen swap and a G56 swap later this summer after show season.

The initial reaction she gets is a lot of broken necks and staring.

“Being a female with a nice truck always turns heads,” Jordyn says, elaborating further on how she still gets the occasional “I like your boyfriend’s truck” comment.

But when Julian and Jordyn park their trucks next to each other whenever they attend shows, the balance of contrast and similarities is more than enough to catch plenty of eyes gazing in fascination and admiration. And when driving down any winding small-town road, local highway, or interstate, there’s only one thing that’s better than the roaring sound of an American diesel V8 truck: two roaring American diesel V8 trucks.