The custom wheels adorning the front axle? This is one of the very few clues towards the newfound velocity-friendly nature of the old Chevy truck we have here. And, much to our delight, this 1984 C10 recently descended onto the drag strip to show its might.
The Atlanta Dragway welcomed the sleeper Chevy as part of the Street Car Takeover event, with the vehicle taking on an impressively large range of opponents, which ranged from modern muscle such as the second-generation Cadillac CTS-V mentioned in the title and a Dodge Challenger Hellcat to other high-riders.
Thanks to the piece of footage below, which comes from the Drag Racing and Car Stuff YouTuber channel, you'll hear the announcer labeling the Golden Bowtie machine as a "Square-body" - as die-hard aficionados will tell you, this is a nickname chosen by the community and, if you look at most of the body panels, it's not difficult to see why.
However, General Motors actually labeled the said generation as the "Rounded Line" thanks to the more streamlined styling of the cab, as this was the first generation of Chevrolet trucks to use computer-aided styling and wind tunnel testing for lowering drag.
Sure, those efforts were aimed at improving fuel efficiency, but, given the kind of speeds this example can reach while rushing down the quarter-mile, the resulting design comes in handy, even if it's far from what modern trucks offer.
Those sweet numbers are owed to the LS fury under the hood, with the 6.0-liter V8 working with an 88mm turbo. And that turbocharger might have something to do with the fact that the Chevy left the starting line way after the Cadillac, as it looks like the driver of the first was still building boost.
The CTS-V had prepared some custom goodies of its own, as indicated by its 1/4-mile time - animated by a supercharged 6.2-liter V8 producing 556 hp and 551 lb-ft (747 Nm) of torque, the Gen II CTS-V can pull clean 12s runs, but this example covered the task noticeably quicker.
Still, its feat wasn't nearly enough to give that C10 a hard time. Even so, the steel wheels present on the Chevy's rear axle didn't always see their tires gripping, and some of its opponents certainly used that to their advantage.
In his quest to bring you the most impressive automotive creations, Andrei relies on learning as a superpower. There's quite a bit of room in the garage that is this aficionado's heart, so factory-condition classics and widebody contraptions with turbos poking through the hood can peacefully coexist. Full profile
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