'89 Notable Notes
In the July '89 issue, coverage of the first Sport Truck Nationals appeared. The event was huge with 10,000-plus spectators. We can see why so many people showed up. GM gave away two brand-new small-block crate engines. And the legend that is the Sport Truck Nats began. We are less excited to report that we put a damn Pontiac Trans Sport minivan on the cover of the July issue.
Convertible trucks were all the rage in '89. In the September issue, we featured a ragtop roundup of seven different aftermarket convertible-top manufacturers, including our favorite, Ratical Tops.
'90 Notable Notes
Progressive Custom Wheels simultaneously fired us up and scared us with this ad. The chick is hot, but we're wondering what she could be hiding in all that hair. Holy hair extensions, Batman!
The Shelby-edition Dodge Dakota was the fastest production pickup during ST's test. With a top speed of 120 mph, it beat out the Chevy 454 SS, GMC S-15 and Sierra, Jeep Comanche, Nissan Hardbody, and a Roll-a-Long customized Ford F-150.
'91 Notable Notes
You guys with suede interiors are about 18 years too late. Ford's Design Center put suede in the Force 5 concept truck way back in '91.
In May, Sport Truck absorbed another Petersen truck title, Hot Truck magazine, in an effort to create one all-encompassing custom truck pub. We also scored Mike Magda from the staff of Hot Truck.
We tested GMC's amazing Syclone in the June issue. Rik Paul was the lucky SOB who got to flog the turbocharged, all-wheel-drive beast.
Kevin Wilson joined the staff and brought new meaning to the words "hot," "win," "new," and "free."
Centerforce Clutches made us wish we had paid more attention in Anatomy and Physiology class so that we could've asked our teacher what the hell the leftus calvis monstrous is.
'92 Notable Notes
We road-tested the baddest SUV on the planet, the AWD Typhoon. We coaxed it to a 6.5-second 0-to-60 time and a 15-second quarter-mile time. We also embarrassed a Mustang GT during the test.
Editor Hoyt Vandenberg pioneered the Viking horns way before washed-up rapper, Flava Flav, tried to get with washed-up actress/model, Brigitte Nielsen, on television.
In August, Jim Ewing of Bell Tech fame saved our butts by providing not one but two cover trucks for a shoot. Even more impressive, the second truck was a custom Ford, which was hard to come by at the time.
GMC killed the Syclone in '92. We still aren't done mourning the loss.
ST printed its first photo of a body-dropped truck. The front end of Pat Nicholl's Ballistic Toyota is visible in the Cal Jam coverage, although we didn't bother to write a caption for it.
'93 Notable Notes
One of those products that never caught on was the Dasum Corp. Curb Safe electronic warning system. For $99, you could have saved a lot of trips to the local Chevy dealer for a new front valance every time you ran over a parking block.
And the winner for the largest number of axles ever stuffed under a Hilux is... We have no clue, but check out the splatter graphics and mint-green paint!
Record number of axles, engineering explained: Rodney Turpin's Datsun relied on a sophisticated hydraulic system to raise two of three sets of axles so that his long hauler could make a U-turn.
'94 Notable Notes
We got to drive the development mule for the Viper-powered SRT10 truck way back in the September issue.
Did you know that Rancho made lowering kits for Chevy 1500s back in the day? We didn't either.