Friday 10th March 2017

Britain's fastest pick-up goes to auction

900hp V8, an MOT until November and a £30K estimate? Truck yes!

---

PH received a lesson in drag racing recently courtesy of Santa Pod; we tagged along to its Dial in Day last weekend to learn about bracket racing. Who knew doing 400m in a straight line could be so taxing?

About to hit 125mph in less than six seconds

Anyway, there's more to follow on that soon. Since the weekend though there's been a fair bit of discussion about elapsed times, terminal speeds and cubic inches. Then you're on the Chevy Performance catalogue eyeing up crate motors...

And in a fortuitous piece of timing, the sale of Britain's fastest road legal pick-up has been brought to our attention. This 1984 Chevrolet S10 features a 640hp 7.0-litre Chevrolet V8 - we'd guess an LS7, given its capacity and lack of forced induction - with a manual gearbox from Andy Frost, he of Red Victor fame.

A potent combination, though not enough to set any records. Hence the inclusion of nitrous oxide, boosting power to more than 900hp... Apparently this means the big old Chevy is capable of 1.3 seconds to 60mph, 5.6 seconds to 125mph and an eight-second quarter mile. All while remaining road legal.

You could commute in it if you wish...

Having been owned by the same person for the past 24 years (who spent £85K in the process), the S10 will be sold by Classic Car Auctions at its Practical Classics Classic Car and Restoration sale on April 1-2. The estimate is £30,000-£35,000; it runs on standard road petrol, the electric windows work and it even has an MoT until November. Go on...

If the Chevrolet is a bit much for you, there's plenty else at the CCA sale. In fact, the variety is huge. Evo VI Tommi Makinen? Got it. Alfa Montreal? Yup. All sorts of old Minis? No problem. There's even a UK MX-5 from the first year of production, which looks very nice. See the full catalogue here, and get your bidding arm ready!

[gwc1997]

If I had the money it would be mine! Love an overpowered pick up!

[Dr G]

Details here:

http://www.classiccarauctions.co.uk/1984-chevrolet...

Old school BBC rather than an LS.

TH400 is an automatic.

Anyone actually read the auction listing?

[Jonmx]

The pickup is awesome, every trip would be a hoot albeit an expensive one! Worth every penny though in terms of fun.
The estimates on the listings for the auctions make me want to leave this planet, in that an old Escort RST has an estimate of 20-25k whilst a manual 635csi has a 10-12k estimate. I know which I'd rather have!

[Frio3535]

A good buy for any fencing contractors needing to get to clients quicker.

[soad]

Classic Car Auctions said:

Ideal for the trip to Morrisons and, if that's too far away, throw a rope around it and drag it a couple of blocks closer

[ogrodz]

I have had a new 3litre Anorak on order since June 2016. Reliably informed it has now landed in the port of Grimsby - so not long now.

I think fast car like pickups that qualify as a Light Commercial Vehicle are the way forward - check out the company car tax position!!

[Lead]

Great in USA where bends don`t exist but pointless anywhere else.

[adaptive]

would rather spend that kind of money on a maloo

[5ohmustang]

Lead said:

Great in USA where bends don`t exist but pointless anywhere else.

S10/Sonomas can be made to handle. How deep are your pockets?

You can find an average condition Syclone/typhoon for 10k.

https://youtu.be/5hJ0kMY6rc4
https://youtu.be/SHsJgidaBhY
https://youtu.be/eMK7Zgtpazs

[powerstroke]

Lead said:

Great in USA where bends don`t exist but pointless anywhere else.

Bllody elll have they put a chicane in at santa pod

[WCZ]

would be interesting to see what ranking this would be in America, maybe the 10,000th fastest pickup truck?

been watching some 1320 youtube videos recently and it's interesting to see just how big the drag racing culture is there compared to here, so many powerful cars

[anonymous-user]

WCZ said:

would be interesting to see what ranking this would be in America, maybe the 10,000th fastest pickup truck?

been watching some 1320 youtube videos recently and it's interesting to see just how big the drag racing culture is there compared to here, so many powerful cars

It's unlikely to be at the top of any ET list, either in the UK or US, but the build cost has to be factored in. This would have been a sensible build cost. A maximum effort build along the lines of Jeff & Belinda's S10 pickup which run's in the 6 second zone, is a whole different ballgame from a pro street car. Of course there's the consideration given to what's street legal in the UK, and in the USA. The two are very different - you can take a Pro Mod to Drag Week and call it a street car.

[WCZ]

fuelracer496 said:

It's unlikely to be at the top of any ET list, either in the UK or US, but the build cost has to be factored in. This would have been a sensible build cost. A maximum effort build along the lines of Jeff & Belinda's S10 pickup which run's in the 6 second zone, is a whole different ballgame from a pro street car. Of course there's the consideration given to what's street legal in the UK, and in the USA. The two are very different - you can take a Pro Mod to Drag Week and call it a street car.

interesting!

[5ohmustang]

Insane Duramax Chevy Colorado.

https://youtu.be/ghe3E81OiJA

[steveb8189]

Can't say I know much about drag racing or the effect of radial tyres but that sounds an incredibly fast 1/4 mile time to me with "only" 900bhp

Must weigh about 600kg...

0-125 in the same time as a Chiron which has 65% more power

[parabolica]

Awesome. Ever since getting into Roadkill a few years ago I've had a serious soft spot for muscle trucks.

[Coatesy351]

steveb8189 said:

Can't say I know much about drag racing or the effect of radial tyres but that sounds an incredibly fast 1/4 mile time to me with "only" 900bhp

Must weigh about 600kg...

0-125 in the same time as a Chiron which has 65% more power

65% more power and loads more weight.

Approx power needed to run a 9.5

1180 kg: 599 hp
1270 kg: 645 hp
1360 kg: 692 hp
1450 kg: 738 hp
1540 kg: 784 hp
1630 kg: 830 hp
1720 kg: 876 hp
1815 kg: 922 hp

[clonmult]

steveb8189 said:

Can't say I know much about drag racing or the effect of radial tyres but that sounds an incredibly fast 1/4 mile time to me with "only" 900bhp

Must weigh about 600kg...

0-125 in the same time as a Chiron which has 65% more power

The Chiron is listed at weighing 4,400lbs (2,000kg), which is seriously lardy. The only figures I can find for the '84 S10 are around 3,500lbs. This has obviously had a fair bit stripped off its original weight, so the power to weight ratio probably does exceed the Chiron.

And damn, the Chiron is seriously fat, although they do have a cool set of headlights.

[anonymous-user]

While horsepower helps somewhat, chassis setup is key - and it's part of the reason that cars with sub 1000 horsepower can ET quicker than the likes of a P1 / 918 etc. The impressive thing for me would actually be how well the holy trinity cars get off line in spite of their chassis setup i.e. they're designed for roundy roundy business not hooking hard.

Weight wise, the truck in question would be in the 2600-2850lbs zone I'd expect.