For guys who know, the OBS trucks were kinda the end of the line. The last GM truck you could wrench on without a laptop or a service subscription. Jon Cromling knew it too, but he wasn’t about to keep his truck bone stock. He wanted it sick. He wanted it fast. So he hauled it to Street Machinery in Euclid, Ohio, and told them to build something that looked like a sleeper but hit like a sledgehammer.
They started with a clean, 40,000-mile survivor. It didn’t stay clean for long. The heart of the build is GM’s LSA crate motor, but the guys at Street Machinery didn’t stop at “crate.” They cranked it up with a 2.38 overdrive pulley, LS9 cam, and Lingenfelter-ported heads. Backed by a Holley Terminator X MAX EFI, the engine sounds like a beast on a mission, but keeps it civil with cold A/C, and creature comforts, all of it. Only now it’ll rip the tires off the wheels if you’re not careful.
Putting that power down takes the right combo of parts. A Tremec T-56 Magnum six-speed, McLeod twin-disc clutch, and S1 sequential shifter make sure every gear hits hard. Out back, a built 10-bolt with Moser axles and 3.73 gears plants the power, with CalTracs and a flip kit keeping the rear end honest. It’s a straight-shooter setup. Drag race roots with street manners.
The chassis wasn’t ignored either. Ridetech coilovers up front, HQ shocks in the rear, a C-notch, bracing, crossmembers: the truck’s as tight as it is tough. Plumbing’s all hard line, with Brown & Miller Racing Solutions fittings that look like they came off a Formula 1 car.
Inside, the truck’s still a C1500, but it’s been sharpened to a razor’s edge. A Holley 12.3-inch Pro Dash sits in a custom bezel, OE-style warning lights are tucked into a laser-etched block-off plate, and every duct, bracket, and airbox was designed and built in-house. It’s part old-school craftsmanship, part modern race tech, no shortcuts taken.
Billet Specialties Turbine wheels, 20×8.5 and 20×10, ride on Nitto NT555 G2 and RII tires, and they hook as good as they look. This truck wasn’t built for the back row of a car show. It was built to run.
Jon’s C1500 is proof that the OBS Chevy isn’t just nostalgia. It’s a platform that can still throw down. Street Machinery built it like a weapon. And when he’s behind the wheel, grabbing gears, he’ll forget it’s 30 years old. All he’ll know is that it’s fast, it’s loud, and it’s his.