Building a competitive drag car is tough enough—but for our pal Matt Zapp, he took it up a notch by keeping this super clean 1984 Chevy S-10 street legal.
And he did it while keeping the glass and body intact.
…Heck, the truck still has a sunroof and a radio.
But that’s about where the stock-ness ends. When Matt found the truck, it had already been back-halved with a V8/TH350 combo swapped in, but now the S-10 is fitted with a 6.2L LS making 460 horsepower at the wheels—not too shabby for a carbureted NA motor on its stock crank with ported 283 heads. Matt says it’ll eventually get switched over to the EFI LS manifold so it’s legal to run in Super Stock classes.
Though the truck is fresh out of the paint booth, Matt’s been able to give it a few runs down the 1/8th mile at his local track, where it notches 6.30s at 106 mph. Thanks to its consistency and dyno numbers, Matt’s confident the truck will sneak into the 9s in the 1/4 mile.
We’ll soon find out, as the S-10 has a full dance card already—Matt’s lined up a few regional races in the coming months, and he plans to tackle a few Drag-and-Drive events next year.
UPDATE! October 2024 – Matt took the Dynamite Trailer’s S-Dime to the Discovery Channel Street Outlaws No Prep Kings race at Rockingham and won the 7.00 index class!
To get the whole story on the project, we sat down with Matt for a podcast episode. You can give it a listen here, and we’ll give you some more specs and pics of this truck below as well.
Matt Zapp’s 1984 Chevrolet S-10 Pickup Truck
Fast Specs
- 570 horsepower at the crank
- 460 horsepower at the wheels
- 3,250 pounds with driver
- Street legal, All Steel/All Glass legal & NHRA legal
- 6.30s in the 1/8 at 106 mph
- 9.90 in the 1/4 mile (estimated)
- Project Led by ZZ’s Speed Shop
Engine
- 6.2 LS aluminum block bored .005″ over
- 823 stock heads
- Stock GM crank
- Summit Racing Pro LS Rods & Pistons
- 11:1 compression
- Cometic Gaskets
- FLR Racing Supply lines
- Brian Tooley Racing Stage 3 cam and lifter kit
- GET’M Performance 1,000 cfm methanol carb
Transmission & Driveline
- Abruzzi Racing Transmission
- Powerglide with 1:80 straight cut gears
- 9” Moneymaker 5,800 stahl converter
- 9″ Ford rear end with 4:56 gears
Suspension
- Penske Racing Shocks
- S & W back half with 4-link
Wheels & Tires
- Race Star 63 Pro Wheels (17″ front, 15″ double beadlock rear)
- Hoosier Tires (28 x 10.5″ Drag Radials, rear)
Interior & Trim
- Full interior
- Bucket seats with racing belts
- Roll up windows
- Sunroof
Special Thanks
- Brian Nutter, Summit Racing Equipment
- Mike Hupertz, Cometic Gasket
- Trevor Wiggins, GET’M Racing
- Marco Abruzzi, Abruzzi Racing Transmission
- Eric Davis, Penske Shocks
- Zach Zapp & Kelly Varner, ZZ’s Speed Shop
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Get all the details on the S-10 build in the OnAllCylinders podcast section.
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What an amazing job Paul. Can’t thank you and the Summit team enough. So grateful.