With all the oohs and aahs at the 2024 Barrett-Jackson Scottsdale Auction, its easy to lose track of some of the most remarkable sales of the week. If you’re a typical classic car guy/gal and have been caught by surprise at the number of high-dollar trucks that cross the block, would you believe this has been going on for more than a decade? One of the highest-charting and most impressive trucks during the nine-day event is this 1972 Chevrolet K10 Cheyenne Super pickup built by Utah-based Special Blend Motor Garage in partnership with Arizona-based Vockal Motors. And guess what? This very truck has a 3-year/36,000-mile warranty and can be serviced at your local Chevy dealership.
For those of you who need a primer on Chevy trucks of the era, the Cheyenne Super was the top-of-the-line, sitting above Cheyenne, Custom Deluxe, and Custom trim levels. Standard was a cushioned bench with seven inches of foam is upholstered with houndstooth cloth and vinyl, a full-gauge instrument panel, woodgrain trim on the dash and doors, carpeting, and more were decidedly un-utilitarian items for a truck. Outside, stainless steel moldings, chrome hubcaps, chrome front bumper, and other trim made you forget that this vehicle’s M.O. was utility.
Many years later, Special Blend Motor Garage and Vockal Motors have paid respect to the Chevy’s classic appearance, but don’t be fooled because clever details abound. Inside and underneath, you will discover more profound modifications that make this Chevy something not previously imagined at the Freemont assembly plant – all told, 2,000 hours were devoted to this effort. The chassis is a modern GM unit modified in-house by Special Blend Motor Garage that has been media-blasted, then coated in PPG corrosion-resistant epoxy. To resist future corrosion, U-POL Raptor coats the frame and undercarriage. A modern independent front suspension and four-link rear with BDS Suspension-Fox four-inch lift and Fox DSC adjustable coilovers give the ol’ Cheyenne Super modern driving and handling chops. A rack-and-pinion steering directs the chassis in all directions fore and aft.
Powering this retro-modern performance pickup is a 6.2-liter GM Performance LS3 with FAST LSXR intake, Holley fuel injection, and DeatschWerks injectors assisted by Holley accessory drive and vintage coil covers. A Borla exhaust keeps the truck from being asthmatic, while a GM Performance 6L80E six-speed automatic points all 525 horses to all four wheels via GM’s NP261 HD manual transfer case.
Dark Bronze Mayhem Voyager wheels are paired with 35-inch AMP Terrain Attack MT/A tires, with 16-inch Wilwood hydro-boost six-piston slotted/drilled discs bringing the motion to a standstill.
Inside, a Dakota Digital RTX cluster maintains the stock OE appearance, with a Pioneer nine-inch touchscreen elegantly integrated into the dash. Other modernities include rear-view backup camera, JBL subwoofer, Kenwood speakers, and cruise control. For the hot months, a Restomod Air system keeps you cool while lookin’ cool in the cabin furnished with leather and plaid seats. For the modern man and woman, a Vockal-designed center “buddy seat” with a “tech organizer” console wirelessly maintains the charge for the latest in electronic devices. Behind the scenes, triple-layer sound-deadening and heat-shielding do their thing while you’re none the better for knowing.
Outside, the mostly stock-looking homage to Chevrolet history has been professionally finished with BASF VisionPlus LeMans Blue and Olympic White paint. It’s literally the best of the past and the present in one extremely capable truck, but don’t trust us – trust the person who spent $330,000 to call it his/her own at the 2024 Barrett-Jackson Scottsdale Auction.
