ne of the benefits of using a late-model engine, such as the venerable LS-series of GM powerplants, is the fact that they came equipped from the factory with a reliable, serpentine belt setup. Unlike the V-belt systems of old, the serpentine-style requires reduced belt tension, resulting in less stress on the various components’ bearings and seals and increased belt-to-pulley contact ratio, resulting in less belt slippage. Reliability in the upper-rpm range is also a benefit of the serpentine belt design over the old V-belt. Unfortunately, the packaging of many OE serpentine systems can leave something to be desired, not to mention their rather utilitarian appearance. When it comes to building a custom truck with a tidy engine compartment, a stock pulley system just doesn’t cut it. Thankfully, Eddie Motosports (EMS) saw the writing on the wall when they introduced their line of S-Drive serpentine pulley systems a few years back and successfully filled the void.

Since then, EMS has continued to improve upon the S-Drive product line by introducing an eight-rib version in an effort to reduce belt slippage in high performance applications. Their latest offering, dubbed the Pro Touring Kit, expands upon that performance aspect by utilizing not only an eight-rib belt and pulley setup but an additional idler pulley for increased belt wrap on the alternator and power steering pulleys. An oversized pulley on the power steering pump helps slow the pump down during high-rev maneuvers on the autocross track.

s I’m physically recouping from the last four days spent out at the Fairplex in Pomona, my mind is still trying to wrap itself around the events that transpired … actually, the EVENT that transpired: the first-ever Grand National Truck Show put on by our friends at Rod Shows (the same folks behind the Grand National Roadster Show).

While the show itself was two days, myself and quite a few others were onsite early Thursday for the judging of the first World’s Most Beautiful Truck—which, if you haven’t read by now, went to Greg Tidwell’s South City Rod & Custom–built ’40 Ford (see page 12). Eighteen trucks of all shapes, sizes, colors, and denominations competed for the coveted award sponsored by ARP (whittled by my buddy Mike Curtis/Curtis Speed), and the judging took the better part of the day. Friday of course was spent setting up displays and vendors, not only in Building 4 as originally planned but the adjacent Building 6 as well to accommodate the excess number of indoor entries (not to mention the formal Corn Hole Contest!).

rt Morrison has a long history of building performance vehicles. As a teenager he collected a number of trophies with his homebuilt, big-block–powered, straight-axle–equipped ’54 Chevy. Morrison’s passion for performance ultimately led him to open Art Morrison Enterprises (AME) in 1971, which quickly grew into one of the leading drag race chassis and component manufacturers in the country.

Ever the innovators, AME grew in size as the company broadened its scope by including components for high-performance street vehicles. That led to the revolutionary direct-replacement chassis for ’55-57 Chevrolets. Introduced in 2002, the all-new suspension design gave these vintage vehicles the best in contemporary ride and handling characteristics. Today AME offers direct-replacement performance chassis for a variety of cars and trucks, custom one-off chassis for virtually any vehicle imaginable, and B-body Mopar K-members with coilover suspension.

After 51 years in business, Morrison decided to step down and turn the reins of AME over to Matt Jones. Jones has been with the company since 2004, serving first in the engineering department, then as operations manager, and now as president. Under Jones’ leadership AME continues to develop new products, the latest being a new 4×4 chassis for ’73-87 Chevrolet/GMC pickups and Blazers with ’67-72 applications to follow.

e’ve been following along as Paul Wilson has been in the process of transforming a random pile of parts into a complete ’52 Chevy pickup. So far in the pages of Classic Truck Performance we’ve shown how a mildly tweaked ’55 Chevy pickup frame has been straightened and stepped in the rear. It was then equipped with a C4 Corvette independent front and rear suspension by way of kits from Flat Out Engineering. With a rolling chassis (albeit on wooden mock-up wheels) the next step in this evolutionary process was installing the engine and transmission.

While LS engines and overdrive transmissions are all the rage, Wilson decided to take the old-school approach and go with a Gen II 350 Chevy from BluePrint engines coupled to a Turbo 350 transmission. Speaking of the evolutionary process, the engine Wilson chose is virtually all aftermarket with BluePrint’s own cast-iron block, aluminum heads, and internal components. Equipped with a single four-barrel carburetor and roller hydraulic cam the engine dyno showed 341 hp and 371 lb-ft of torque, which will make for a good daily driver. The transmission has been rebuilt and equipped with a mild shift kit and a “tight” stock stall speed torque converter for efficiency.