MuscleTrux Wars FINALE: Ford Lightning vs Chevy 454 SS Grudge Match

Today. It's the battle you've been waiting for. It's Ford versus Chevy on the street on the track on the strip and just playing on the gas first, we're going to the sport truck shootout in London, Kentucky. Then we're pinning Kevin's lightning and Ryan's 454 Ss to a head to head shootout for our muscle truck series title. It's all today here on trucks.

Hey, welcome to trucks. We're here in London dragway in London, Kentucky for the ninth annual North American Truck Club. Sport truck shootout. Check this stuff out, man,

man. This is sport truck heaven. The North American Truck club is out in full force with their Chevys and whether you're into Nitrous or Turbos superchargers or natural aspiration.

They've got it all for you all flavored

in the mouth.

They're loud too.

The North American Truck Club's annual shootout is a one day event for all sport trucks. And this year London dragway drew all kinds of vehicles from all over. Now, that is how you get a 57 Chevrolet on trucks. TV. Dave Shale

has got one bad nitrous powered big block that he built with the help of a couple of friends.

He was also the guy who generously donated a center console for our SS.

You got yours in your truck? No,

I do have an extra one that I'm going to put in there eventually. But that was a spare that I could give up for you. So

I appreciate it. No problem, Dave's truck was put together at his family's speed shop in Orland Park, Illinois.

And with all that horsepower, it's still a decent driver. And believe me, he does drive it

all the time. Drove last night, 75 miles. So, really? No,

that's what it's basically designed for,

well behaved, of course. Oh, yeah,

Cadillac,

but it wasn't just about Chevy power.

The Ford crowd was out in force and one of the fastest lightnings of the day was Keith Blackburn's big block. Gen one lightning that he's named Copperhead.

It features a fiberglass front custom suspension, full cage and 557 cubic inches of heat. And today he was cooking. I just broke out. It went 654 at 100 and four

through

eight.

Probably the most extreme street truck we saw was turbo Billy 1200 horsepower twin turbo and Nitrous powered SS

that like a lot of other extreme builds started out pretty mild,

but then it got crazy.

Uh I was told I can get

Je about $5000.

0,

yeah. How did that work out?

Didn't work out.

It was fun to have our project trucks on display.

But one of the best things about the shootout was that we got a chance to say hi to some of the people that watch trucks

and have followed these two build ups.

The night before the races, we were invited by the North American truck club to a get together at the local state park for a closer look at some of their trucks. And he had the chance to ask around and talk to people about trucks, high performance strategy and all things. Automotive.

One of the most interesting trucks, there was this all wheel drive GMC typhoon

and it was pretty dramatic seeing an all wheel drive burn out with its LS One power plant, custom front suspension

and reprogrammed electronics.

And if you've ever thought that computers have gotten in the way of hot rodding, well, guess again because

Jeff and his buddies is just another small obstacle. What I've done is I've taken the stock computer and adapted it for the eight cylinder and me and some buddies have rewritten the code inside

so we can run up to £30 of

another off the wall and unique build. But cut from the same cloth was a turbocharged LS powered cyclone owned by Will

Power

and with less than 3000 factory cyclones produced,

he's made his even more rare. There are a few LS one cyclones but LS one and Turbos and all wheel drive. I believe this is the only 11 of our toughest jobs over the whole weekend

was picking out our favorite street truck to present them with a dual liner sponsored prize.

And it was turbo Billy with his twin turbo 454 Ss that got our attention big time.

Well, this one doesn't need a bed liner, but I looked at your tow ring.

Yeah, I've got a 05

tmax diesel. I'm sure you use

it.

Hey, these racers are really the kind of guys we like to see our bed liner go to

stuff stays where you put it. And that's what really counts to these guys. Great people, a great track. A great day for racing and tons of friends to share it all with all add up to one fun event.

And it's a good thing. This is an annual get together because something this good definitely bears repeating

up next. We'll see how our trucks do on the street

and later how they do on the track.

Stay tuned.

Hey, welcome back to trucks

with the North American Sport Truck club shoot out was a huge success. And after seeing all those great trucks at the track, we figured there's no better time than now to finally see how our trucks do up against each other. So for starters, we grabbed the keys and hit the road just to see how they felt.

The first thing I noticed about the 454 was the ride quality because a lower truck is usually a compromise between stance and comfort.

But with the Bell tech kit, it was almost as smooth as a stock truck, but a lot more solid thanks to the urethane bushings and fatter sway bars, but on a scale of 1 to 10, give it a solid 8.5

then I put my foot into it and the acceleration was all big block

planning you into the seat with torque. You can feel even at highway speeds

when this lightning was bone stock, it had a stiff suspension and now with four inches a drop, new sway bar, urethane bushings. Well, I'm dead

more aware of road field, but our goal was to improve these muscle trucks and to step up performance

and the way this thing feels when you press on this skinny pedal, well, it literally plants you back in the seat

and I think on a long trip, this would wear you out the short term. This takes a blast to drive out on the highway

on a windy two lane. This almost 20 year old truck really shines

and I almost forgot that it weighs well over 4000 pounds.

It feels surprisingly nimble and like on the highway ride quality suffers a little but not much. The lightning is undoubtedly stiffer, but it goes where you steer it. And unlike a lot of I beam trucks, I've driven, it follows your orders precisely.

Both trucks were hard to keep under the posted speed limit

on corners.

So, I guess it's a good thing. We don't drive them every day

because I know I'd be racking up some speeding tickets. Now, we took these trucks to a local tire and alignment shop and each was lined up right back into spec, with no trouble which shows off the quality of the Bell Tech and the DJ M suspensions. The GM and Ford engineers knew what they were doing as well, but with the EPA and limited technology of the day, well, they kind of had their hands tied behind their backs a little.

Well, thanks to the aftermarket, providing us with options like a more sophisticated EF I system shift improvement kits, better braking technology and vastly improved computer programming. We were able to bring these trucks up to modern day standards where they can truly live up in the name sport trucks,

which brings us right back to where we started this whole thing off wondering what would happen if we put a 454 ss up against the first gen lightning?

Which one would come out on top with a big block win over forced induction, small block.

Well, you guys that have been watching these shows deserve to know exactly that. And now that these trucks are road ready. Well, that's exactly what we're going to do

when we come back. The guys will slug it out on the track.

Stick around.

Hey, welcome back. Well, guess where we ended up. Yep. We're back here at our favorite racetrack. Us, 43 Raceway Park in Etheridge, Tennessee. And now that we know how these trucks feel on the road, it's time to see what they can do right here on the track, but it's not just about straight line performance. We want to find out who's got the most well rounded sport truck. So we're gonna throw a slalom and braking test into the mix. But first things first, see how these trucks do when they're street tires.

It's pretty apparent that we're no longer dealing with a stock drive train.

So I did a couple of launches with a little less pressure on the pedal just to shake it out.

It felt like it was hooking. It launched good. I mean, it, it took off oet, uh, 9920 something, I believe.

I mean, it's not bad for a big old heavy truck. So, uh, I think the floor mats,

uh, holding, yeah,

throttle. Give it another round

this time. I got into the throttle a bit more and when the turbo spooled up the tires just let go.

But once it got a little traction, well, she took off like a scalded dog.

Well, I hope he blows the tires off at every time, at least. Give me a chance.

That was perfect. Do that every time,

man,

those hard compound tires. Yeah, you, you lit them up pretty easy and just

it was walking out sideways. Even with the well prepped track, the lightning still wasn't hooking,

but we've got a secret weapon for later on

the seat of the pants. Omer. Well, it's pegged. This truck is fun.

He got a 952. He still blew the tires off it a little bit. But, uh, I

think we got something for him.

I rolled into it out of the gate just to see how things felt.

And it became pretty apparent that traction was going to be the issue of the day.

At least on street tires.

That's a little bit, a lot better. 72 miles an hour. 1004. And you were cooking with gas too. Do you here at ch

second gear?

And you weren't even out of second gear by the time you went through the traps,

I just leave it in second then. Yeah.

Yeah.

Need to get in that nine

barrier though. I don't think so.

Taking it easy off the line

doesn't help 60 ft time.

And on an eight mile track it's all about getting a jump on it,

but this big block felt pretty good

all the way through the RPM range. 9, 9773 miles an hour. How did it feel? It felt a lot better.

We went through the trapped in a second gear, top into second gear right at about 5000 RPM. So the gears matched up pretty well. So

it's time for some slicks

before we throw on the slicks. We wanted to see how each truck reacted in a slalom course.

Kevin's best run was his first

with no cones and more body roll than anybody expected. Despite the giant engine up front, the SS had a clear advantage in the handling department. So I thought a little more speed might help but

not so much.

Now, these are simple, non scientific tests, but they compare the basic functions side by side. Try to find a better line. I squeaked through another run but the tail was still wagging. The dog

right

now. Ryan really had it dialed in on his last run beating me by more than a half a second with no casualties.

Well,

he kicked my butt on that, but I'm gonna blame it on the coil springs. We had some of the guys on the forms warn us about putting the stock f 150 coil springs back under this thing

and we took a gamble and, you know, I'm playing it all on the truck. What do you think? I'm gonna blame it on that emblem on the front.

You see that? All right. Let's see what was next?

A braking test was next.

And the lightning which stopped well, in stock trim.

Well, it locked up the front wheels big time. Let's

see if we can do better and try that again.

This was another best out of three and it did get a little better

Oh,

you must have got a little heat in the tires that time better. I'm working on some flat spots. You got about six spots. Yeah.

Even with some saw pedaling, this truck is a handful in a panic shop.

A

little better that time. You're either getting heat in the brakes or heating the tires. I don't moving up 5 ft every time. I don't know if it was the extra weight over the front, but the 454 really shined on this test.

Now, these were hot laps and this truck just kept getting better.

Proving to be the clear winner in overall handling.

My secret weapon.

He gets about six

MPG. He's gonna run out of gas before his last stop and I'm just gonna win by disqualification.

Now you saw earlier on the track, but it was pretty easy to light up the street tires. So to remedy that we're gonna replace them with these Mickey Thompson et Streetss should take care of our traction problems

even with the ET street tires combined with the Calvert racing traction bars. The torque of the big block still broke the tires loose under wide open throttle.

Hey, whatever you did that time is helping you big time in your 60 ft, same mile an hour at the back, 74. But it was a 970 flat. I think the only thing missing was some cones.

Yeah, it was,

it was kind of a Mr Toad's wild ride about a quarter mile on that

eight,

8, 98. You're kidding me? Still at 76. So you're still right at the same mile an hour if you

were on the

street, but hit hard,

it felt like it's hooking really, really good.

So it comes down to a straight line brawl, big block versus small block, Chevy

versus board.

And although the super sport gets the whole shot, but the lightning picks up the slack at half track and ends up winning by better than a truck la

but this is by no means over because although each truck has its strengths, there's still one more test

after the break, it looks like style points will have to break this tie.

Don't go away.

Hey, welcome back to the final chapter of muscle truck wars. Well, after an entire day of beating on these trucks, straight line runs a slalom course and 60 to 0 stopping tests,

well, we finally decided there's only one way to settle this once. And for all the doughnut contest,

the object was who could drift around the cone the most times without knocking it over.

But after the first time around, I couldn't even see the cone for the tire smoke. So I just held it to the floor.

My foot slipped.

The Super sports stop limited slip differential. It was ok in a straight line,

but spinning in a circle, it was really limited.

And between searching from left to right for traction.

The pig block torque simply overwhelmed the worn clutches

and anything more than a peg leg stripe.

Well, it just wasn't in the cards today.

Not even in reverse.

I think I need a locker or something. Only one wheel spinning.

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