Speedtech's Pro Touring C10 Project

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Hey Everyone-

I'm Ben, the visual design guy at Speedtech Performance. Some of you that have one foot in the muscle car world might have heard of us, we manufacture Pro-Touring suspension and LS/T56 swap stuff for GM muscle cars. Last year we decided it was time to build a shop truck so we picked up a pretty beaten and stripped 67 C10 to start out with. It got tucked in the corner for a while to finish up some other projects but earlier this year we came up with a game plan which quickly snow balled. It went form a mild cruiser build to designing an entirely new chassis with the goal of being the hands down best C10 suspension on the market. I came up with a concept rendering and we finally dusted it off earlier this year to get rolling on it. I thought you guys might like to see some of the build for our "Evil Oreo"...



More pics coming...

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Well this little p'up wandered into the shop lookin' like it had a pretty tough life. Needless to say, there wasn't one matching color panel, it was missing half it's parts, it had rust all over and it looked so bad it would run and hide every time a camera came out. I barely got this first shot while it was hiding behind the paint booth. Unfortunately this was the only "before" photo we took.

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The replacement parts list is a long one, starting out with a complete new bed, tailgate, doors, fenders, hood, floor, rockers, and lower cab corner patch panels. Additional patch panels were hand formed to take car of areas we couldn't order. This was our first experience with a full C10 build so we decided to apply some of the things we do to the muscle cars to this one. During the panel replacement process, the firewall got moved back and smoothed a little, and the drip rails got shaved. Topping off the cab mods are also be flush mount glass and a modified cowl panel. These pics are the start of some very cool things to come...

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To visually drop the truck even lower and get the air flow around the rolling brick a little better Jeremy's created some mild side fairings.



Here's the beginning metal work on the hood.

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Not long ago Forgeline announced deeper offsets available for the GT3C wheels, so back to the drawing board we went. After a few different options were considered we decided to do the centers in transparent red and the barrels in white. We're after a mild custom yet still out of the box styling with this build so the shoe, or in this case wheel, fits. We talked to Baer and they were able to whip together a little custom bling for the brakes too, which will look great under the wheels. Cool eh? BTW the Speedtech Signature Logo calipers are now available to customers too.

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This was our prototype chassis posed under Oreo's cab, and is actual static ride height. The cool thing about this is the frame is tucked about even with the stock rockers and it has a full range of normal travel at this height. Now, for you slamarized guys, imagine how easy it would be to put this thing on the ground with a set of bags, which will be an option with the chassis package. In the photo we borrowed wheels from another project to give a feel for sizing. These are 335-30-18s on 18x12 rallies out back and 275-35-18s on 9.5s up front. Our final wheels will be 19s and 20s with 345s out back and 295s up front. This is going to be one killer C10 that has the moves!

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Shortly after the above mock up we got the wheels and tires in from from Forgeline. WoW!! Some of the shop guys think we're pushing the limits a bit on styling but I say they're totally sick! The transparent red looks wicked and the white rim will tie them into the truck's paint theme. It's like a crazy blend of old school deuce coupe wide whitewalls on red rims and new school pro touring flair and styling with a bit of attitude too. Let me know what you think!

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...Some shots from the C10 frame develpment phase. Splined sway bars, LOW ride height, coilovers, torque arm, rack and pinion, stainless tank...the works.

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One of the main goals for this new chassis is to have full suspension travel with a super low ride height. We wanted to still be able to haul a Harley so a big ol' bump in the middle of the bed just wouldn't do. We like to think if we didn't mention it's been raised most folks wouldn't catch it at first glance. First step was widening the tubs. This was simply done but moving the area where the tubs bolted down inward. Same deal inside the bed sides, just moved everything upwards.

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The end result...

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Now the reason for the bed mods...
Note:
-Torque arm suspension, the same style set up in our booty kicking Camaro and Nova suspension systems
-Articulink rotating trailing arms with greasable Delrin bushings
-Several coilover options from mild street to full race sweet
-Splined sway bar with several available spring rates
-Available 9" Ford with all bracketry pre-welded on
-Rear frame clearanced for 345s and then some for the pro street guys
-C notch built in for air bag dropping the rockers on the ground

[trkfrk]

Sweet build The chassis looks great! Looking forward to seeing this one completed..

[TexasLS1]

Awesome work, I'm watching this one too

[LPoole]

I love the way those fat Meats look on the back ! subscribed.

[tinydb84]

Man that thing is cool

[lolife99]

VERY cool!

[CParnell]

I like those side fairings, nice work.

[jessemthompson]

Very cool truck. I love the wheels and tires!

[TexasLS1]

I'm liking the narration to go with the pics too lol. The wheels are an excellent choice with the paint scheme you decided on. Do y'all plan to sell the complete chassis? Can't wait to see the steering end.

[Chucks72Longbed]

I'm in! That extremely nice.

[tommys72]

Wow

[allchevy58]

Nice!!!

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And now the most exciting news- how about the most advanced optimization of suspension geometry on the market. Trust us when we say hours and hours of time went into this suspension design. Yes it rides well. Yes it rides LOW. Yes it is high clearance to easily swallow 315s. And yes, with Ron Sutton on board as part of the design team, this suspension kicks! Quoting Ron-

 The ONLY chassis to come exclusively with the Next-Gen ATS spindle
 Industry first: Optimum roll center with any suspension strategy
 Roll Center achieves optimum location for low, mid & high travel
 Increased shock length providing more suspension travel
 Excellent for street, autocross & track days
 Virtually ZERO bump steer - .005” in standard full travel
 Bump steer kit available for competitors desiring additional bump out
 Up to 30 deg of steering angle
 Rack location & ATS Next-Gen spindle provide optimum Ackerman
 3-piece Chromoly tubular splined sway bar available in various rates
 It just doesn’t get ANY BETTER than this

and Ron speaking about the new "Next Gen" ATS spindle...

 We took the best forged aluminum spindle & made it better
 Better Geometry than ANY Corvette (or Corvette copy) spindle
 Reduced KPI/SAI angle
 Requires less caster to achieves optimum tire contact patch
 Significantly less scrub radius
 Maintains optimum tire grip with less backspaced wheels
 Still forged from 7075 aluminum
 Uses all brakes built for Corvette C6 spindles
 Comes standard with stronger ZR1 hubs & bearings
 Next-Gen steering arm provides increased Ackerman steering
 Achieves optimum tire slip-angles, increasing front tire grip
 Excellent for Autocross, Road Course & Street




Yeah baby!

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Here are some more pics...

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Underneath...



Sway bar mount...