Imagine that you are out tooling around the countryside (in your favorite hot rod) on a sunny spring afternoon. You roll up on a rusty 1971 Chevrolet C10 and notice that he has loud exhaust. Before you can say, let’s race, this old farm truck stomps the gas and leaves you sitting in a puddle of your own shaving cream. That would be Lance Smith in his 1999 Craftsman Series NASCAR Race Truck – disguised as a ’71 C10. Gotcha!

Lance calls them “racerods”. He takes a raggedy old hull of a car (or truck) and sets it on a race chassis. It’s not expensive and it doesn’t take a ton of time. By the way, racerods are a whole lot of fun.

So, it all begins with a ’99 Ford F-150 Craftsman Series Race Truck chassis with an integrated roll cage. The NASCAR sheet metal was scrapped and the ’71 C10 was modified to fit the race chassis. From there, it’s just a matter of repositioning the wheel openings and lining up key components. Easy, right? Not by a long shot. Lance is an artist/genius, craftsman and master fabricator.

The chassis retains all the on-the-fly adjustability of a Craftsman Race Truck complete with Penske dual adjustable shocks. The four-wheel disc (manual) brakes are 6-piston Brembo with 13-inch rotors.

Under the hood, the engine is a naturally aspirated 358-cubic inch V8 with a Holley carb. In keeping with the NASCAR theme, it has a dry sump lubrication system, a transmission oil cooler and a differential oil cooler – all bed mounted. There’s also a heat exchanger in the radiator for engine oil. The transmission is a 4-speed manual. Of course, the rear end is a Ford 9-inch.

“Car guy” Nicole Johnson is getting ready to hit the highway in Lance’s creation. Wanna ride along?

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