A Shop Truck With a Twist

SHOP TRUCKS have been around since, like, forever. There was a time when their main purpose was to chase or deliver parts and maybe pick up lunch for the crew. At some point someone slapped a leftover set of billet wheels on their beater shop truck and a whole new appreciation for these workhorses began. Now we see them everywhere, from those still enlisted in daily shop duty to those dropped on the ground surrounded by a crowd of cameras at SEMA. While admittedly cool, most of these shop trucks seem to pop from all too similar molds, wearing either Mother Nature’s handiwork or a good paint guy’s fabricated patina and the ultra-common super-low airbagged stance. With Goodguys and similar events encouraging true performance, word on the street is becoming, “Sure, it’s low, but how well does it drive, handle and stop?” Having produced a number of award-winning performance suspension parts and multi-purpose Pro-Touring car builds, owner of Speedtech Performance, Blake Foster, decided it was time to build his own version of a shop truck, something with a little twist.

This new street suspension is also designed to lead the pack on track day. If we can prove it works by keeping pace with fully built Pro-Touring cars in our wheelbase-challenged, nearly 4,000-pound honest street driver pickup, it’ll clean house when fitted in Camaros, Novas and Chevelles.”

A barn-find beater ’68 C-10 was delivered to the Speedtech rod shop, but it wasn’t clear whether anything more than the title would be salvageable. A game plan with a few key must-haves was put in motion, including Speedtech’s famous subtle custom body mods, a modernized interior with all of the amenities, a comfortable ride for street cruises, and most crucial of all, it had to become a true Pro-Touring truck right at home playing with the well- prepped muscle cars on the autocross and road course.

Scrapping every original part but the tailgate and empty cab shell, Classic Industries supplied the rest of the C-10’s new sheet metal. During the body’s reassembly, every panel on the truck was reworked with custom touches to match Blake’s vision for go-to-show quality. The list included a smoothed Marquez front bumper hovering over a functional air dam/splitter, stock replacement grille trim with custom mesh inserts and body-color bezels surrounding diamond- cut headlights with integrated turn signals. For an updated look, the hood center was recessed, the drip rails were shaved, front and rear glass were flush- mounted, and quarter vent windows were deleted. Speedtech logo-stamped fenders shaved from emblems and marker lights rise above the functional ground effects that help the truck stick to the road during high-speed excursions. In the engine bay, the firewall was smoothed and custom fender wells were formed. Hidden boxes in the fender wells conceal the engine computer and an enclosed air cleaner with ram air opening behind the grille. Out back, a custom roll pan and mildly frenched LED taillights wrap up the custom touches. To keep the truck fully functional, Blake raised the bed floor and the 4-inch widened wheel tubs to clear the raised frame rails. To finish the bed, a flush-mount pop-up fuel cap resides in the left bed rail, and spray-on liner keeps everything protected. The mile-deep black hue was painted in-house, and the white portion is 3M vinyl wrap, which provides protection from high speed road debris and the occasional rogue autocross cone.

While the bodywork was shaping up in the rod shop, Speedtech’s engineering team was wrapping up R&D on a new suspension design specifically intended to outperform anything else available. Blake told us that he challenged the crew, “This new street suspension is also designed to lead the pack on track day. If we can prove it works by keeping pace with fully built Pro-Touring cars in our wheelbase-challenged, nearly 4,000-pound honest street driver pickup, it’ll clean house when fitted in Camaros, Novas and Chevelles.”

The new ExtReme suspension clip was fit into a pair of CAD-designed, laser-cut and CNC- formed, internally gusseted and jig-welded C-10 frame rails. Extra-high-clearance geometry- enhanced tubular control arms support ExtReme forged aluminum tall spindles and custom-valved Ridetech adjustable coil-overs. A splined sway bar and quick-ratio power rack- and-pinion steering complete the fully tuneable front suspension. Out back, Blake took another turn, equipping the chassis with Speedtech’s successful Torque Arm long arm 3-link-style system rather than the typical air suspended 4-link. When asked why, he said, “We used our Torque Arm for the C-10 because it provides incredible handling, avoids the bind inherent in leaf springs and 4-links, rides comfortably, and is clean, simple and easy to install. It just makes sense.” Helping the Torque Arm do the job are Ridetech adjustable coil-overs, a billet pan hard bar, Speedtech Articulink trailing arms and a splined sway bar.

Both up front and on the Dutchman-prepped 9-inch Ford rear axle, Baer brakes provide some serious stopping power. Speedtech signature series billet six-piston calipers grab the 14-inch slotted rotors hard. Completing the chassis is a Jekyll and Hyde team of wheels and tires; for the street the C-10 rolls on smooth-riding 295/30R19 and 345/30R20 Michelin Pilot Super Sports wrapping 19×10 and 20×12 Forgeline wheels. For handling 150-plus-mph road course blasts and tight high-speed autocross turns 315/35 and 335/30R18 BFG Rival S street stickies roll on 18×11 and 18×12 black and red Forgelines.

Blake told us, “I needed it to be obvious this was a street truck that performs like a racer, rather than a race truck that looks like a streeter.” To master that goal, the interior was upgraded with Cipher seats, custom leather-wrapped headliner and new door panels, power windows and locks were installed. Surrounding an ididit steering column are custom- milled billet aluminum dash bezels encasing the stereo, Vintage Air AC and heater controls and custom Speedhut gauges. The leather-upholstered center console hides a single 12-inch woofer and integrates several components from a late-model GMC console and billet B&M shifter.

The Speedtech race team wanted plenty of super- reliable pump gas power fitted under the hood, and Texas Speed & Performance answered the call with a 560-hp LS3 upgraded with Speedtech stainless headers, Speedtech road race oil pan, remote oil filter and cooler, Drive Junky pulley system, custom coil covers and a polished fresh air intake. All this power is channeled through a specially built Hughes 4L65E automatic.

This complete combination of power and suspension helps this unique shop truck score big across the board. It’s got the cool slammed stance, smoothed body lines, comfortable street driving and full race car handling when it’s game on. In its first season, the Speedtech C-10 dominated autocross truck classes, and throughout the season placed high among the faster cars in attendance. After a season of hard flogging and proving what they set out to do, the C-10 has been retired to mild-mannered street-driven shop duty to make way for racing Speedtech’s ExtReme muscle-car builds—at least until the next Sunday cruise through the twisty red rock canyon roads of southern Utah.

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BUILDSPECS

OWNER

BLAKE FOSTER
Speedtech Performance
1968 Chevy C-10 Short-Bed
St. George, UT

ENGINE

• Dyno’d 560-hp Texas Speed & Performance 6.3L LS3
• Sheet metal custom coil covers
• Speedtech-Performance-fabricated road race oil pan
• Remote oil filter and cooler system
• Drive Junky pulley system
• Custom-built and polished air intake tube and K&N cone filter
• Speedtech Performance stainless ExtReme full length headers
• Stainless 3-inch dual into single 4-inch exhaust/2-in-1 out Spintech muffler
• PRC aluminum radiator with Spal dual electric fans
• Rick’s Tanks custom ExtReme chassis stainless fuel tank
• Vapor Works ZL1 Fuel pump assembly
• Hughes 4L65E transmission and torque converter modified for road racing
• Mark Williams Accubond 6061 aluminum 4-inch driveshaft
• Dutchman-built Ford 9-inch rear axle, truetrac posi center, 3.73 gears

CHASSIS & SUSPENSION

• Speedtech Performance complete ExtReme 1968-72 C-10 chassis and suspension
• Speedtech ExtReme high-clearance, geometry-enhanced, tubular control arms
• Sweet Mfg. quick-ratio, autocrossed- valved, rack-and-pinion steering
• Front and rear Ridetech single adjustable coil-over shocks with Speedtech/Ron Sutton Secret Sauce street/race valving
• Speedtech ExtReme front and rear custom rate splined sway bars
• Speedtech rear Torque Arm and billet pan hard bar
• Speedtech Articulink bind-eliminating rotating lower control arms

WHEELS & TIRES

• 19×10 and 20×12 Forgeline GT3C
• 295/30R19 and 345/30R20 Michelin Pilot Super Sports

WHEELS & TIRES, RACE

• 18×10.5 and 18×12 Forgeline GA3R
• 315/35R18 and 335/30R15 BF Goodrich Rival S

BODY & PAINT

• Shaved drip rails
• Flush-mount front and rear glass
• Quarter window delete
• Recessed hood and billet hinges
• Smoothed Marquez fiberglass front bumper
• Custom front splitter
• Custom octagon mesh grille inserts
• Diamond-cut headlights with integrated turn signals
• Speedtech Logo stamped fenders
• Hand-fabricated sheet metal ground effects
• Shaved cab-mounted fuel filler
• Smoothed firewall and custom wheel tubs with hidden boxes for ECM and air filter
• Motorcycle-type pop-up fuel filler in bed rail
• Rear wheel tubs widened 4 inches
• Raised bed floor and wheel tubs covered in bed liner
• Custom rear roll pan
• Black paint
• White 3M 1080 vehicle vinyl wrap
• Slightly frenched LED taillights

INTERIOR & STEREO

• Cipher bucket seats
• Ridetech five-point race harnesses
• Custom Speedtech Signature gauges by Speedhut
• Billet aluminum dash inserts
• ididit steering column
• Vintage Air AC and heating system
• Grant steering wheel
• B&M shifter
• Alpine stereo with 1,000-watt amps and 10-inch Alpine woofer hidden in console
• Custom console with 2015 GMC armrest, cup holders, and 110v USB and accessory outlets
• Custom leather-wrapped dash pad, door panels and headliner

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