When it comes to racing, most winners aren’t running cookie-cutter combinations. If you are trying to run at the front of the pack, you have to look for any edge you can find, and you don’t do that by running what everyone else runs. That means one thing – custom. When it comes to custom racing pistons, Ross Pistons is one of the names that is constantly on the spec sheets of the most successful builders.

“Our custom pistons can be made for the smallest four-stroke motorcycle, all the way up to 6-inch diameter beasts for aircraft engines,” says Ross’ Chris Laduca. “Drag racing is our bread and butter, but we do some circle-track stuff, and some off-road applications as well.”

When you are trying to squeeze every last horsepower from your combination, the tiniest of details matters, and the team at Ross Pistons understands that. “When we put together a custom piston, we look at everything. We actually digitize the cylinder head’s combustion chamber and make the crown of the piston fit the chamber perfectly,” Laduca says. “There are like 30 parameters we need to take into account to get you the right piston. We tailor the piston to your needs, rather than getting you something that might work, off the shelf.”

Building a great piston is more than just getting all the specifications right. You have to actually be able to build what you’ve spec’d. “We focus on building a reliable piston, not only through materials, but through all the little details, which are actually a big part of the overall piston designs. We’re detail oriented,” Laduca explains. “One of those little details is that we do profiled dome tops, which allows the engine builder to just drop the piston right in and not have to detail the top of the piston themselves.”

It’s not just gasoline pistons that Ross develops, with a new 6.7-liter Cummins diesel piston on display. “We have a new forging out for the Cummins which has a tapered pin boss instead of a straight pin boss,” Laduca says. Regardless of what kind of custom piston you need, Ross Pistons is up to the task of designing and producing it for you.

As you can see, there is quite the variety of piston styles and options available from Ross, even diesel pistons. What isn’t as obvious in the picture is all the minute details that Ross Pistons obsess over, so that you don’t have to.