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10 of the Most Interesting Classic Muscle Trucks Ever Made

Vukasin Herbez February 23, 2025

Even though the muscle car era is symbolized with fire-breathing coupes and convertibles coming from Detroit, the quest for power influenced some other car classes, as well. One of the most interesting is the pickup trucks. Back in the heyday of American performance, US manufacturers introduced several trucks that could blow the doors of the sports cars in stoplight drag races. Today, we will showcase several most interesting and classic US muscle trucks.

1. Dodge D-Series High Performance Package

Back in the early ’60s, Dodge`s lineup of trucks was behind Ford and Chevrolet. Simply, competitors had newer models, more options, and wider engine choices. But Dodge did not give up and introduced an interesting special edition, available from 1964 to 1966 which took the pickup world by storm.

It was called the High-Performance Package and it featured a lot of go-faster goodies from Mopar. First, there was the mighty 426 Wedge V8 engine with 375 hp. At the moment it was the biggest and most powerful engine ever to be installed into a pickup truck. Second, there were bucket seats in the interior, 6000 rpm tachometer, racing stripes, and performance transmission.

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2. Ford Ranchero GT

The Ford Ranchero was conceived in the late ’50s as a reasonable proposition to car/truck dilemma. It sold reasonably well and became a practical vehicle for people that wanted usability and payload of a light truck with the drivability and road manners of a car. However, in the late ’60s when the muscle car craze took the American automotive landscape by storm, Ford decided to introduce its most potent muscle car engine – the mighty 429 Cobra Jet to the Ranchero line.

If you opted for GT package in 1970 and paid extra for 429 you could get one of the fastest trucks on the planet along with optional wood grain sides, hood scoop and suspension upgrades. The Cobra Jet engine was rated at 335 hp but in reality, it had over 450 hp. The performance was brutal and Ranchero GT was a bit handful to drive.

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3. Chevrolet 454 SS

The basic idea behind this model is to offer the biggest available engine in the lightest full-size truck. It was muscle car philosophy in truck form. That is why Chevrolet`s engineers took the ordinary 1990 Chevy 1500 pickup truck with a short bed option and added a massive 454 V8 engine. The enormous 7.2-liter V8 was good enough for 230 to 255 hp, which was a diminutive number, but it also had 385 lb-ft of torque, which made it fly down the road.

The big-block engine was borrowed from Chevrolet`s heavy-duty truck lineup and it was a durable but also a pretty thirsty machine. On the outside, 454 SS was a kind of low key without any wild graphics or color choices.

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4. Dodge Lil Express Truck

The secret of the Lil` Express Truck and its importance lies in strict rules of the late ’70s which robbed the V8 engines of its power and vehicles of its performance. But Dodge found an interesting loophole in regulations which declared that pickup trucks didn`t need catalytic converters. This meant that Dodge could install a more powerful engine and have it breathe easier and deliver more punch than previous models or competitors. And this is how the Lil` Express Truck came to be.

Dodge took the standard D Series short bed truck, added a 360 V8 engine and put big truck-like stacked exhaust pipes right behind the doors. They also installed durable automatic transmission, a red color scheme with signature decals and details and lots of chrome trim. This wild-looking special model had 225 hp which was considered much in those days and thanks to the revised drive train it was the fastest accelerating domestic vehicle in 1978!

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5. Ford F-150 Lightning 1993-95

The Ford F-150 Lightning is a legendary truck. It wasn`t the first muscle truck but it was one of the best and extremely well-executed, making the first generation, sold from 1993 to 1995, a true automotive icon. The basic idea was to make a muscle truck using a regular F-150, very similar to the Chevrolet 454 SS.

However, Ford did it with more care and better engineering and gave the Lightning a lighter and smaller but equally powerful engine. Under the hood was 5.8-liter V8 with 240 HP and 340 lb-ft of torque giving the classic F-150 Lightning respectable performance.

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6. Chevrolet El Camino SS 454

The Chevrolet El Camino was conceived as a half-car/half-truck vehicle for carrying light loads, delivery duty and useful tool for small business owners. And most of them lived their lives exactly like that. But, 1970, Chevrolet introduced the wildest El Camino of all in form of El Camino SS 454.

The mighty 454 V8 LS6 was a 7.4-liter Chevrolet`s big block engine with 450 hp official rating. The engine delivered around 500 hp in real life and it was a fire-breathing beast and one of the best engines of the muscle car era. In the El Camino SS, this engine provided significant performance figures which were close to the best regular muscle cars of the day.

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7. GMC Syclone

Back in the 1980s, GM has experimented a lot with turbocharged engines which was pretty much in sync with the industry`s trends at the moment. GM took an ordinary S10 body shell, installed a 4.3-liter V6 with a turbocharger, good for 280 hp, special 4-speed automatic sourced from a Corvette and performance biased all-wheel drive.

The power figures don’t sound much these days, but the Syclone was able to sprint to 60 mph in just 5.3 seconds which made it faster than contemporary Ferraris.

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8. Dodge Dakota Shelby

The Dakota was a compact pickup truck from Dodge sold between 1987 and 1996. It was dependable, tough-looking and came with a wide arrange of engines and trim levels. But Dodge wanted more and in the late 80s, the company conceived a performance version created by legendary Carroll Shelby who was working with Chrysler Corporation at the moment. Shelby took the regular production Dakota and installed a 5.2-liter V8 engine with 175 HP.

Although the power output was relatively small, the Dakota was light and had lots of torque which meant that this compact truck had some convincing performance. Shelby also dressed up Dakota with special paint, trim, roll bar and wheels which made this little truck stand on the streets.

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9. Pontiac El Catalina

Before you say that the ill-fated Pontiac pickup truck is not a part of muscle car or performance car history we just want to remind you that if this car had been built, performance crazed Pontiac team of engineers would definitely have presented it with Super Duty, GTO Tri-Power or Ram Air IV engine in some point just to compete with the El Camino SS or Ranchero GT. So, let`s talk about this beauty.

In 1960, Pontiac wanted to expand their portfolio and even thought of producing some sort of light delivery vehicle or truck. The closest thing GM had at that point was a popular and usable Chevrolet El Camino which was based on the full-size Chevy car platform. Pontiac`s R&D department took the El Camino and mounted its own 1960 Catalina body, chopped and reshaped with the El Camino rear glass and truck bed. The finished concept was called El Catalina and it was arguably more beautiful and elegant than El Camino.

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10. Chevrolet Big 10 1976-79

In the late `70s, only Dodge optioned for presenting muscle truck and sell it as such. Chevrolet, on the other hand, had the same idea but it cleverly disguised it as a special version of its main pickup line. Back in the day, Chevrolet sold many special versions which were mostly trim and color choices and Big 10 started as one of them. However, if you ticked the right boxes when you ordered your new Chevy truck you could end up with a machine almost as quick as 1979 Corvette.

The trick was, of course, in the engine choice. If you paid extra for 454 big-block V8 and four-speed transmission, you could get 245 HP beast which was more powerful than any other muscle car from the period. Of course, the pickup truck construction put obvious limits but still this muscle truck could accelerate from 0 to 60 mph in 8 seconds range.

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