It is said that with the right engineering and work, any vehicle can go fast. That's largely true for cars, but can it be applied to a pickup truck?->ke242 According to DRIVE's latest "Big Muscle" episode, there's at least one truck that is as fast and nimble as car on the race track. The hauler in question is a heavily modified 1969 Chevrolet C10 built by Bob Philips for his wife Brandy. Yup, Brandy is a race car->ke148 driver and she previously did laps on race tracks across the U.S. in a second-generation Camaro.->ke248

Getting back to the truck, don't let the utilitarian nature of the C10 fool you. This rig went through an extensive overhaul that change everything but the familiar body of Chevy's->ke4330 famous truck. Just like a full-fledged race car, the C10, now renamed as the C10-R, received a massive front splitter and a huge rear wing, both made from carbon-fiber. Phillips also equipped it with gold-painted 18-inch rims shod in wide performance tires and wrapped its body in gunmetal grey for a Pagani Zonda-->ke942like finish. Yup, that's no mistake, Bob actually wanted the C10-R to resemble the mighty Zonda R, noted for its black carbon-fiber body work and gold wheels.

But believe it or not, the exterior is the least impressive aspect of this truck. Keep reading to find out why.

LS1 Engine, Track-Focused Handling

Backing the truck's menacing appearance is an Chevrolet, LS1 V-8 engine tuned to deliver a whopping 575 horsepower and 580 pound-feet of torque through a Viper-sourced, T56 six-speed manual transmission. There's no word as to how many seconds this beast needs to hit 60 mph, but my bet is on a mind-boggling four seconds. Making the C10-R that much more exciting is the fact that its underpinnings have been tweaked to deliver race car-like handling. It might seem impossible given the awful aerodynamics of the standard C10, but it looks as if Phillips pulled it off. All told, this is the first non-factory, track-focused truck I've seen in a long time and arguably the coolest C10 build ever. Check it out in the 11-minute video above and pump up the volume before clicking the play button.