Most six-cylinder trucks never expect to be blessed with huge-horsepower V-8s, nor believe that they will ever exceed 87 octane or 18-second timeslips. “Will I ever know what alcohol tastes like?” and “ Will my rearend gear ratio ever get bigger?” are common fantasies, but are never expected to be realized. Just like the fantasy that Mike Cobb had about his father giving him the ’70 Chevy C10 as his first ride. Luckily for these two horsepower-thirsty souls, Papa Babb handed Mike the keys and the rest is a beautifully tubbed, alcohol-breathing, high-revving, 5,000-stall, 5.38-geared history.
Since Mike filled out every single category on his tech sheet under Engine Mods except Blower and Nitrous (that’s right, baby, all motor), let’s just get down to the dirty, greasy, balanced and blueprinted 600-horse facts. It’s a ’72 Chevy small-block bored 0.030 over with a 3.48 stroke. Engine innards consist of a Cola crank, Manley pistons, a roller Comp Cam with 0.630 lift and 254 degrees of duration at 0.050, Crower roller lifters, angle-cut ported and flowed 492 Chevy heads, a crank-trigger MSD, Comp roller rockers, Moroso stainless steel valves, a stud girdle and 8-quart oil pan, a Diamond windage tray, port-matched Brodix intake, and a Holley 900-cfm alcohol carb modified by Dale Cubic. This beast of a small-block is connected to a Powerglide tranny with an RTC 5,000-stall torque converter. Add the Strange spool with the 5.38 gears, and it’s a mystery to us why this thing doesn’t necessitate wheelie bars.
We know you’re probably on sensation overload here, but if you look past the candy red paint, huge meats, and 600hp engine, you might notice that this C10 sits a little lower. The 5/6 drop is thanks to a set of Belltech 3-inch drop spindles and a custom, hand-fabricated C-notch by Babb Racing.
It’s got Koni adjustable coilovers and Ford 11-inch disc brakes, because once you get this thing rolling, weak-butt drums ain’t gonna do diddely-squat. In order to support all that V-8 tonnage on the front, an ’83 ½-ton K-frame was bolted in. It has a Competition Engineering four-link setup and ’69 Ford pickup front springs. The C10 sits on a set of fat, mean Weld Drag Stars and extra thick Mickey Thompson meats.
The exterior of this brute has been modified with a Godfather Customs roll pan, an aluminum bed floor, and some super-light Lexan windows. The Firemist metallic paint (gotta love the candy red) and tubbed silhouette scream macho macho manly toughness. And that 3-inch Flowmaster two-chamber exhaust bellows the combative cackling of high compression and delivers that sweet, intoxicating, high-octane aphrodisiac substance known as alcohol.
The seats are out of a ’93 Nissan 240 SX and have been re-covered in matching red and gray. We love the way the rollbar is padded and how it matches the rest of the interior. Keeping Mike safely stuck to the seats as he gets squirrely is a set of five-point harnesses. For a little added sparkle, Mike added the Billet Specialties steering wheel and had an Auto Meter instrument panel custom made by Babb Racing. As you’ve already guessed, this thing rumbles so freaking loud that it would put any subwoofer to shame, so adding a sound system would be stupid.