'95 Notable Notes
Naiser Racing Components' billet steering wheels were bitchin because they were solid, without a half-wrap, and you could order them in anodized colors. They weren't cheap, but neither was the machinework.
Trader's Truck Accessories was doling out the euro look before anyone else with its carbon-fiber-look interior dress-up kits.
'90s excess spilled over into the custom-truck world when guys started naming their trucks. Kevin Ball knocked one out of the park when he named his multicolored dualie "Sweat From Da Balls."
Future Truckin' magazine editor Steve Warner used to work at ST. He arrived in the October issue as the editorial assistant.
The first feature truck in ST to have the insanely popular Cadillac taillight conversion was a '70 Chevy owned by Lee Hirn. Hank James failed to mention the lights and the cool Caddy license-plate treatment in the tailgate in the story.
'96 Notable Notes
If you just couldn't get enough of coked-out hookers and butch-looking female officers on the TV show Cops, then you could have ordered the Cops: Too Hot for TV video in our July issue.
Colorado Custom dropped 20-inch billet wheels on the scene at the SEMA Show.
Art Morrison was building mandrel-bent chassis rails and complete frames with linked rear suspension and IFS way back in '96. With enough kick-up built into the 'rails, these could have become the first body-dropless chassis.
The '96 Dodge Ram Indy Special paced the Indy 500. The truck received a 5.9L V-8, Brilliant Blue Indy paint with wide white stripes, and 17-inch wheels.
'98 Notable Notes
The ST Nats finally came to California at Fontana's California Speedway.
This was the year we finally got wise and brought a mobile photo studio to all of the ST shows to shoot cover trucks with. Damn we're cool.
We printed our first two-wheel-drive lift-kit buyer's guide in the April issue and tried to explain why in the world anyone needed to lift a two-wheel-drive truck.
The Dodge Dakota 5.9L R/T truck smoked the field to win the Sport Truck of the Year crown in '98.
'00 Notable Notes
The first truck to drag its rockers through one of our feature stories without a traditional body drop was Jeff Lander's '92 Chevy Sportside. It featured a body-dropless chassis and Jeff's painting handiwork.
In September, we ran a story about 10 things we believe to suck. Unfortunately, author Phillip McKracken (that's got to be an alias for someone!) took shots at guys who build their trucks to drag on the ground, and that's just wrong. We're still embarrassed eight years later.