7s Stick Shift Chevy S10 Wipes the Floor With Turbo Mustang, Camaro Shows It's Not Enough

Back in the early 1980s, General Motors became responsible for the first domestically produced compact pickup truck among the Detroit three. It was the S-Series, made out of Chevrolet’s S10 and GMC’s S15, the model later known as the GMC Sonoma.

Replaced by the Chevrolet Colorado and GMC Canyon, the series may be gone, but it’s certainly not forgotten. Especially Nick of Cole-Mann Customs, the owner and driver of the Native Nightmare, clearly remembers the Chevy S10. Perhaps it’s because of the monster he created, the current holder of the fastest LS stick shift record, as well as the fastest manual transmission pickup truck.

And, although he doesn’t run close to his all-time best of 7.28s at 196 mph (315 kph), both man and machine put that into the proper perspective with a trio of qualification runs performed for the H-Pattern Elite Stick Shift Class. The first battle is against the newly reborn Red Demon V2 that still looks to be made out of scrapyard parts, and there’s no Cinderella story here because the S10 establishes domination with a 7.65 result.

Next up (at the two-minute mark) comes a couple of battles against a 2014 Ford Mustang packing a turbocharged mill. The 1992 Chevy S10 is meanwhile equipped with a 402ci (6.55-liter) Dart LS block that has a pair of Borg-Warner Bullseye 76mm turbos strapped to it. So, one can imagine the encounter is of the “not even close” variety. Although, after the first attempt (7.71s vs. 9.23s), the Blue Oval seriously ups its game and also enters the seven-second territory. But, ultimately, it’s really not enough to secure a win.

Interestingly, after dropping to 7.57s (against the Mustang’s 7.75s run) during the previous encounter, the Chevy S10 and its driver are unable to keep up the pace with a turbo Chevy Camaro. So, the last battle from the 5:26 mark proves “fatal” for the S10 truck... if only by just 0.1 seconds!