Can you believe it? This is the July '05 issue of Sport Truck. That means that by the time this issue is off the newsstands, we'll be more than half way through the year and roaring past the halfway mark of the first decade of the 21st Century.
Man, time flies when you're having fun. So much so that it feels to me as if I wrote my first column as editor of Sport Truck magazine last week. But, as I prepare to sign-off as editor with this edition of the Driver's Seat, I can see that I've put a few covers on the trophy wall. That is not a small chunk of time, though it's certainly not a large one in terms of an editor's tenure in the driver seat of a magazine. Looking back over those issues brings back a lot of good memories. I've met so many new friends, first as managing editor, and now as editor of the absolutely coolest custom-truck magazine on the newsstand.
Moving on to a new assignment brings the excitement of new challenges as well as the sadness of losing the close working relationships you develop with workmates, readers, and industry contacts. Fortunately, I'm staying in the industry, so while I won't be quite as involved in the sport of building custom trucks, I'll still be in a position for a backstage view of the wild machines coming from the imaginations of the talented designers, fabricators, and mechanics who bring so much color and excitement to the industry.
And speaking of wild machines, this issue is jam-packed with some of the baddest trucks as well as some of the hardest-core tech and performance parts on the planet. We even put a sky-high Kelderman-lifted, Banks-tuned turbodiesel F-250 through our Truck of the Year torture test. You've got see this monster leaned over, slicing through the cones. If that's not enough, we've got the second in our series of Instant Expert pocket guides available only to newsstand buyers. This one is all about fabrication and did we ever do a great job filling it with well-written how-to articles and lots of theory, and after reading it you'll be bending tubes, welding, and fabricating your way to sport truck supremacy.
The rest of the issue is just as strong. Be sure to check out the cover truck. The build on this is sure to impress, and you're bound to get a ton of great ideas to style and tune your lifted project to an equally impressive state. And to help you with your latest lifted endeavors, we're showing you how to install two different performance levels of lifted suspension: an easy but great-performing bolt-on as well as more involved lifts that require some engineering and fabrication skills to achieve.
Lifted sport trucks are hot and we're going to show you how to get the look and performance you want for your lifted sport truck project. It all starts right here, right now.
As for me, I'll see you somewhere on the mother road, cruisin' in your sport truck. Peace out.