XP715

For those that feel a supercharged 425-horsepower Ford 427 just doesn't have enough sack, this badass ride also comes equipped with an 850-horsepower Turbonique turbine ROCKET DRAG AXLE! http://www.mecumauction.com/auctions/lot_d...ID=SC0508-65922 If this is what big tobacco would like to spend their money on today, then I will start smoking immediately!

What, no love for the Hudsons and Studebakers outfitted the same way?

Happy birfday!

I'll take whatever comes along, but I was thinking I'd save GMC ownership for a nice big block Sierra Grande of the same vintage, like this one: http://nh.craigslist.org/car/617850953.html

Wow, this is all very interesting information; thank you everybody for digging into your available sources to help me get to the bottom of this stuff. Judging by the numbers balthazar posted, it seems to be a very rare truck indeed; especially since most everybody's sightings of them have been in construction/industrial/municipal livery, meaning they get used and abused and thrown away. Who knows how many are left? It is also very good news to hear that the same stepside box has been used since 1954 with different fenders and steps, meaning I could make one if worse comes to worse. However, I will try as hard as I can to find a real one first since I think the hunt is half the fun. And yellowjacket is right about the reason I want one. When was the last time you all saw one? It'd be neat to have the same truck as a lot of people and a completely different one than anybody at the same time. The search is on!

Must be a regional thing. I remember the Boston & Maine Railroad, the MBTA, the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority, the Massachusetts DOT and Mass Highway having all sorts of standard cab longbed fleetsides, crew cab longbed fleetsides, and Suburbans, but not one stepside. Interesting that some came with a steel bed floor, but I would definitely opt for the oak with some nice stainless steel strips if I ever find one. This is good information; keep it coming! It's all coming together.....

If you remember correctly, it would HAVE to be a longbed; that would be the ULTIMATE truck for wheeling. Crew cab for five, closed to keep the mud off of whiny pussies that don't understand there's dirt involved with off-roading, and functional bed without having to hack a Suburban up But any truck in this configuration, or even just the bed itself would be fine; I can make it whatever else I want it to be with a donor truck or two.

Maybe a feature in the Random Truck Showcase some day?

UPDATE: After scouring the web for another hour, I stumbled upon an excellent site with an ever-expanding collection of GM sales brochures for the 1973-1987 C/K pickups and 1973-1991 Suburbans/Blazers/Jimmys, and found the following information: - The 8-foot stepside bed is first mentioned in the 1973 brochure, not mentioned every single year, but IS mentioned as late as the 1982 brochure. The 1983-1986 pickup brochures were not available, however, so it COULD be offered later than '82. - All C-series pickups had the option of the 6 1/2-foot or 8-foot stepside bed, as did the K10. The K20 stepside, however, was ONLY equipped with the 8-foot bed. (Ideally a K20 with the 8-foot stepside bed is what I would want to find; this is good news!) aaaaaaaaand some photographs: 1974 1975 1981 Still on the hunt for information. Once again, thanks in advance to any of you that are able to give me anything on these trucks!

I was doing a little thinking recently about finding a project pickup at some point down the road, and the 1973-1987 C/K pickups (and '73-'91 Suburbans/Blazers/Jimmys) are the natural choice because of their driveability, modularity, and aftermarket support, and also because they hold a special place in my heart because they are the trucks I grew up with and remember vividly from my childhood as my father, most other male family members of mine, most of my friend's fathers, and virtually all of my father's friends and acquaintances drove them. They had all different sizes and configurations; long beds and short, crew cabs and standard, fleetside and stepside, two wheel drive and four in all different tonnages; you name it. But there is one super rare bird that none of them had, that no aftermarket parts distributor even acknowledges existence of that I have always wanted: The 1973-1987 Chevrolet/GMC C/K stepside LONGBED. Yes, they made them. In super limited numbers. I have seen exactly one in person, in passing on the road, and this was at least a decade ago. They are virtually nonexistent in photographs. In fact, after about an hour of research of on Google Image Search and through various websites, I was able to find only one set of four photographs: This is a 1977 Chevrolet C10 stepside longbed. This is a real unmolested truck that left the factory with this bed; it is not an aftermarket conversion or a home-built bed. Beyond that, what I know about these trucks I could write on a postage stamp. GM RPO code E62 designates a stepside bed, but I am not sure what code or combination of codes with that equals a stepside longbed. So, here are the questions I'm seeking answers to if any of you have this information or could point me in a direction: - What RPO code or combination of codes should I be looking for to discover this rare option? - What years was this configuration produced? - In what numbers was this configuration produced? - Is there any production breakdown of trucks built in this configuration (Chevrolet vs. GMC, 2WD vs. 4WD, 1/2 ton vs. 3/4 ton, etc.)? - Was a steel bed floor optional in this configuration, or only oak with steel strips? - Did the factory make a completely different special bed for this year range ('73-'87), or is it simply the previous generation ('67-'72) longbed with the '73-'87 stepside fenders and a different set of "running boards" on it? (Very important; this could mean the difference between being able to make one and having to scour the countryside to find one) Any help any of you are able to give me on getting information on these rare trucks is greatly appreciated; I need to own one of these before I die!

Hot rodded 1940 Ford pickup

Hah! Looks more like Billy Squier to me! I can almost hear The Stroke blaring from out those T-tops! Still beats my whip in '87, though. I think I was rolling a bright yellow Tonka dump truck in the dirt behind my house.

Saw a lot of cool stuff being out on the road this past weekend down to New York for the auto show and traveling for Easter: - 1958 Corvette roadster, white with light blue coves - late 1960's Jaguar E-type roadster, maroon with tan top - 1970 Oldsmobile Ninety-Eight four door hardtop, pea soup green/rust - 1980(?) Oldsmobile Cutlass four door HATCHBACK, white/rust with Oldsmobile rally wheels (haven't seen one of these in at least ten years!) - 1964 Cadillac Coupe DeVille convertible, white with black top - the mintest 1975-1979 Cadillac Seville I've ever seen in my life, white - two Bentley Continental GT's in traffic in Manhattan; a perfect black one and a red one that looked like it had never been washed

This photograph alone is enough to make me want a 1958 DeSoto. Why aren't manufacturers making photographs like this anymore?!

I can't help thinking of This Is Spinal Tap when I hear stuff like this "It's like, how much more black could this be? And the answer is none. None more black." That being said, I wholeheartedly agree with you. There's a LOT to be said for a car with laser-straight body panels with a flawless coat of gloss black covering them, polished to a deep shine and smooth as glass. Black is the hardest color to keep clean and impossible to hide imperfections with, so when a car looks perfect in black, you can rest assured that it has been done right. A metalflake in black is only there to hide blemishes and mistakes because nobody wants to go the extra mile to make something look perfect in its pure form anymore.

Speaking of 1959, it's going to have to be my close runner up as well; pre-war cars are cheap & plentiful and the relatively new machines are fantastic as well. I'd probably buy one of every model of 1959 GM car (and the 1960 models late in the year; I'd love to hop in a time machine and take delivery of one of the first 1960 Eldorado Sevilles off the line in September!), slightly used '57 and '58 Eldorado Broughams, etc. But really any year in which the American people were still passionate about their automobiles (and the rest of the things about their country) and weren't trying to legislate them into obsolescence would be fine with me. It really sucks to watch everything you love and hold dear be watered-down, cheapened, repackaged, and sold off to the highest bidder.

Any big body on frame rear wheel drive land yacht is a welcome sight on the roads around here in the middle of riced out Honda/Acura city where I live. Older American trucks as well; I love seeing a nicely-preserved '73-'87 Chevy/GMC and even the older F-series and Dodges are growing on me as they continue to disappear. What was once not thought about at all is now becoming a treat to see.

Also, I wonder why the author never mentioned that all the Americans cheer on the Japanese team during the canoe race no matter how hard the Americans try, even though the Japanese company doesn't put anything back into the country they take so much from?

http://www.gather.com/viewArticle.jsp?arti...281474977067637 Got that in an e-mail this morning. How would we go about disproving a few of the broad, sweeping statements made; particularly the ones where American car manufacturers can't handle costs, blah blah blah. You can tell people facts all day long but they just jump up and down and point to back issues of Consumer Reports, so I need hard facts in black & white (newspaper articles, etc.) to forward this back to all the people it's gone to.

I'd go back to about 1916 and buy........ - every car at the Simplex dealership for luxury, speed, safety, and style - Packard Twin Sixes for the same reason - a few Pierce-Arrow 66's for highway cruising: you might think 9 miles per gallon sounds terrible, but not when the powerplant in question is an 825 cubic inch inline six cylinder monster (largest engine in a production passenger car, NOT the Cadillac 500 like everybody thinks) pulling two tons of car at its top speed of 80 MPH. -a slightly used Oldsmobile Limited for rollin' in the hood: factory 42 inch rims, dawg! -Stanley and Doble steamers for when I'm feeling environmentally conscious: water vapor exhaust! ........ and just about everything else from the Brass Era that isn't a Model T. They're all awesome and special.

Majestic Nomad?! There's nothing majestic about that ugly pile of $h!! They destroyed one good car and sullied the good name of another!

If she came with the car then I would buy it, but not a moment before that happens! That's the kind of incentive it's gonna take to get me into a cheesy deathtrap European microcar.

Send me the address of the secret GM warehouse where they hide all the B-bodies and big block Silverados!

For real. That and plugging away at my Suburban for little things, and the Eldorado as time and money allows. Knightfan: buy the Caprice before prices get even more retarded than they already are. You're in luck that Monte Carlos haven't caught on yet in the way that some of their mechanically identical cousins (Chevelle, Camaro) have, so you have time to add an SS to the fleet. Hold out for a really nice Aerocoupe or something weird.

No $h!. Jeez, it only took them 70 years longer to figure out the same thing the Einsatzgruppen in Nazi Germany figured out when they used to route their truck exhaust into the cargo boxes full of people on the back, creating mobile gas chambers. No wonder we pay scientists so much money!