f you’re an early hot rodder, the quintessential car to have (for most) is the 1932 Ford roadster, aka the Deuce (which, in my eyes, is equally as exemplary in three-/five-window form as well!). For custom folk, it’s the ’49-51 Merc. And this list goes on for each segment of the vintage car hobbies, foreign and domestic. For us, while it may not necessarily be by choice, you sure would think the ’67-72 C10 was the be-all end-all of classic trucks. Many would argue that … but the sheer numbers will argue right back!

Some 20 years ago, the standard of classic trucks was the one-year-only ’56 Ford F-100, of which roughly 140,000, give or take, were originally produced (in comparison, Ford produced a mere 12,500 Model B roadsters in 1932). By 1972, Chevrolet alone was producing nearly 400,000 pickups, putting the total number of trucks from that era series well over a million. Similarly, Ford Motor Company was churning out just as many F-100s between 1967-72. Yet, when it comes to today’s aftermarket as well as the hobbyists’ preference, the C10 reigns supreme!

I’ve always made it clear that I’m a Chevy/GMC guy. And while I do in fact own and have owned a few ’67-72s in the past, they are by no means my preference—matter of fact, that’s the last era of 1/2-tons I’d chose from if I had my pick of the litter. Give me a ’64 Deluxe big-window, or better yet a ’55 Cameo any day over a second-gen C10. But for me, when it comes to financially having the ability to obtain that Cameo, let alone the first-gen C10, they’re well out of my affordability range. Lately—well, for quite some time actually—the early Blazers, as the kids are sayin’, are “fire”!

Further proof in that pudding, well, in this case, paper, is in the number of publications dedicated to GM trucks alone. However, to my knowledge, there’s only one national publication dedicated to classic Fords and, well, none for the Dodge folk (note I said “national,” as I’m not referring to the club and local region hobbyist periodicals). While that’s a huge benefit to us when it comes to non-Chevy/GMC content, it’s also a hindrance when it comes to the occasional duplication of higher-profile features, one of which we just recently saw gracing the cover.

Though I really prefer the ability to have such a cornucopia of truck makes and models, when the number of events mirror the abovementioned (how many C10 events alone are there each year?!), that really says something about the overall brand consensus of the hobby as a whole, doesn’t it? Still, no matter what, we will continue to bring you the best of all worlds—and even more so of the “non-lowered” variety, if you know what I mean!