2003 Chevy 2500 4x4 Heavy Duty - Import Crusher

Bigger is better when it comes to most things. This is especially true when it comes to setting up a clean sound system. Air displaced by speakers in a larger area has fewer deflective elements that disrupt the sound wave. In a small import car, the average amount of open area is right in the 83-to-85-cubic-feet range. Large trucks have much more open room than imports; the average for a crew cab 1/2-ton truck is about 122 to 138 cubic feet. Hell, you could probably put a small import car in the cab of a Crew Cab. With a truck, you also have an entire bed that can be used to reverberate sound. The seats in a fullsize truck or SUV are more spacious, making cramped quarters a non-issue. In our opinion, this makes the truck, or SUV (which has an even larger cubic-foot interior), a better platform for both audio and visual entertainment.

Not to be forgotten, the tires on this specific truck have plenty of small-car-crushing ability. We know what you're thinking: What about performance? There's no denying that the power-to-weight ratio is significantly better on the lighter vehicle. You can't be the best at everything. Yet, if you were to put a built rice rocket and a built truck in front of a sick whoop section, the truck would come out on top every time.

Diesel technology has come into its prime. Programming changes to the tranny shifts and fuel curve can provide incredible results. In fact, a good friend of ours was kicked off the track at Irwindale, California, Speedway for running 11.38 seconds at 127 mph - in his Duramax. That's not bad considering the weight of a diesel truck. The cool part is that if he wants, he can still get 16 miles to the gallon. We don't mean to be so hard on the "tuner," but we just can't figure out why you'd take a reliable car with great gas mileage and turn it into an unreliable, overpowered coffin.

That's why when it came time to pick a vehicle for a project, Shawn Williams (owner of this cool black crusher) chose an '03 Chevy 2500 4x4 HD. Knowing exactly what he wanted in the line of stance, Shawn took the truck to Bulletproof Suspension in Mentone, California, where the techs built a custom 12-inch lift for the Bow Tie. New rolling stock was needed to fit the massive lift, so a set of Toyo 38x15.5R18 mud-terrain meats was stretched over a set of 9-1/2-inch-wide KMC rims bolted to the HD. All that reciprocating mass is controlled by dual Fox 2-inch remote reservoir shocks up front and single Foxes out back. Bulletproof's suspension components were coated in silver and black powder and cooked at 350 degrees at Enterprise Powdercoating. Custom stainless-steel braided brake lines replace the stock units and provide added braking with less hose expansion.

FIX Auto Collision in Anaheim, California, began smoothing out the big rig with a set of Cadillac Escalade door handles and a Precision grille. All orange peel on the truck was then removed through hours of color sanding. Installing a Sir Michaels roll pan and sanded tailgate handle put the bed in line with the rest of the project, and both of these components were covered in black to match the truck. The rear lenses were also sanded and shot with a darkened clearcoat, with a slight touch of dark pigment.

The large tires needed more power to push the heavy carcass, so a K&N air intake was employed to eliminate the air restrictions. Exhaling the increased air input was equalized with a MagnaFlow 4-inch after-cat exhaust system. Edge Racing Performance installed a programmer for the 3/4-ton hauler, and the combination makes 650 lb-ft of torque and 350 hp. The large lift needed to be able to reach the transfer case, so the Bulletproof crew custom-built driveshafts for the Crew Cab monster.

Entertainment was just as important to Shawn as the lift, and a call went out to AMS Advanced Mobile System to get the truck up to par in the audio and video department. A Kenwood KVT-911 DVD head unit sits in the stock stereo location. This supplies one Kicker KX600.1 amp and two Kicker KX1200.1 sub amps with low-impedance frequencies. A custom box, built behind the rear seat, houses four Kicker S10L7 10-inch subs in fiberglass. The front doors are equipped with a set of Kicker RS6 splits, while the rear doors carry a set of Kicker RS5s to fill in the mids and highs. When you're out scouting around, you can find yourself with a lost sense of direction. To keep Shawn up on his location, a Kenwood KNA-DV1200 Video Navigation unit and L2800W NAV monitor were installed just below the head unit. All the wiring was done in Scosche to make sure there was no increase in resistance, and all the clean power was pumped out to the speakers

Katzkin Leather Interiors helped get the interior up to speed. With a mix of black leather, Kevlar textures, and black-suede skin, the interior is a fine piece of work. Cal Auto Design marbleized the dash, and accents fill in the rest of the interior design. Shawn's new HD fits the custom-truck bill quite nicely. As far as import cars are concerned, well, we guess that's why we're a truck magazine.