(Words and photos by Doug Gregory) – Trucks…?!!! What the…. Well, here’s proof they can haul more than hay. Each one of these is unique in its own way and I suppose that’s my attraction to this whole LSR insanity. The diversity and ingenuity of early hot-rodding is still alive and well in Land Speed Racing. In fact, they genuinely encourage off-beat combinations and engineering ideas as long as everything is safe. I’ll list a few:
A stock car-type chassis truck with a Ram shell powered by a stock V-8 turbo Cummins. Yes.
1st-gen S10 with Mercedes in-line power.
Take a Ford ext-cab, smooth it off to within an inch of its life, paint it lime green with flames, then power it by a tiny Ford V-8 with two small snails for 190mph+. Add in that its driver – the legendary Bob Ida – and you got something truly unique.
A crusty-looking mid-60s Chevy step-side with twin-turbo LS power sporting blue-jean door panels. We’ve seen that rig at the Street Rod Nationals.
How about a Ranchero sporting a dry-sumped, dual-carb, 2.3 four-cylinder that sounds like a V-8.
Then you have Project ’39. It’s a rat rod using a stock-car inspired frame except with a dropped axle up front. It uses a Roush engine for grunt and ran a best of 186mph with a crew comprised mostly of combat-wounded veterans in conjunction with VETMotorsports. Awesomeness.
Throw in a VW, a light blue El Camino, and a red Chevy short-bed and you’ve got a virtual truck show on your hands. Enjoy seeing these haulers….well…..haul.
Oh, and lastly we just had to include the one vehicle with the most un-documented and un-certified passes up AND down the track – Keith and Tonya Turk’s Dodge. It might be ready for retirement….
Great to see us truck guys get some ink! That’s the best pic of Mutt at speed that I’ve seen so far (David didn’t get us). BTW, “Mutt” is the Mercedes/S-10, so named because of his mixed breeding.
I didn’t get a chance to see Studbreaker and the underhood shots are great. Terri’s El Camino is always fun to see – she has SO mush fun. The Ranchero must have 1,000 passes on it and it’s always interesting. And so, of course, are the rest!
Dan
It was great seeing the Mutt. The different approaches everyone can and do take to this sport make it so interesting. I still tell people about the steam motorcycle from last fall. You people who get out there and do this for the sake of doing it (because there isn’t any other reward for it) inspire us. The other great thing is that big budgets do not mean success. Sticking to it and debugging things is how new marks are set.
Does the Studbreaker truck have the NEW 5L cummins motor from the Titan? Where did he gets his hands on that mill already? VERY COOL!!!
as I heard it –
they were certain the motor was in a public dumpster,
the signs in the area were all in Spanish and none of them knew what they meant,
it might be a worn out test mule that was sent out to pasture.
I cannot confirm or deny the validity of what I heard or if I remember what I heard correctly. 😉
Great pictures, Doug!