A quick (hopefully) funny story about the GM sponsored Bonneville S truck:
Back in the late 80s/early 90s we used to host an event at the GM Desert Proving Ground called "the Happening". The intent of this even was to introduce and familiarize GM upper management with truck products and capabilities, especially those that had matured in the ranks while working on passenger car product lines (...we used to say certain managers couldn't spell "truck").
One year we did a "truck rodeo", complete with barrel races, a trailer backing contest, and even some professional truck pullers and monster trucks, hosted offsite at Firebird International Raceway.
Throughout the course of the event the GMT400 guys were really cocky, talking trash about their newest 454SS trucks and how fast they were, and blah blah blah
. The S truck guys had a couple production Cyclones out there and were not receiving all this trash talk very well, so they challenged the 454SS to a duel: best two out of three at the Firebird dragstrip.
A deal was struck
and the appointed day came. We met out at the track early on a Wednesday morning and the final preparations were made. To be honest, I don't even recall how the first two runs turned out; I kind of remember them being split with the Cyclone winning the first round against a poor launching production 454SS, and then a ringer "hopped up" SS truck was substituted in, handily winning the second round. In any event, a third round was required and both trucks pulled to the line.
They both pre staged....
....and then....
...from behind the tower we could hear this ungodly "bwapping" sound come to life and begin moving toward us. The S truck suddenly backed out off the starting line at a high rate of speed and the Bonneville S truck racer came flying up into position, quickly staged and, before there could be any protests, the tree came down and both trucks launched. The 454 pulled to an early lead; the S truck must have had a 1:1 rear axle ratio as it struggled to gain momentum in the first 300 feet or so (..."bup....bup.....bup bup bup BUP BUP BUP
BUPBUP"....) and then took off FLYING down the remainder of the quarter mile (..."bbbbbwwwwww
AAAAAAAAAAAAaaaaaaaaaaaaa...............") catching the 454 and totally annihilating it in the end.
Of course, the GMT400 guys cried and whined
, but the reality was that the impartial observers were already rooting for the perceived "underdog" and the fact that the fullsize guys got "out-ringered" was icing on the cake.
K