Owner: Mike Logan
Ride: 2000 Chevy S-10
Hometown: Blue Springs, MO
As soon as Mike Logan from Blue Springs, Missouri, picked up his truck, he had big plans for his Dime but had no idea that it would end up the way it did. Whoever would have thought that the truck you see here started out life as a four-banger-equipped Xtreme model?
Unlike most other enthusiasts who have had their trucks grace the pages of this magazine, this truck is Mike's very first attempt at customizing any type of vehicle. Not too shabby, huh?
So you want to know what got Mike craving to take a cruise on the low road? One of his friends had a lowered S-10, and it was cool enough to inspire him to park his new truck in the garage and begin the mod process by conducting a mild static drop. Of course, the appeal of driving around even lower was nagging at Mike, so he introduced the Chevy's frontend to a set of 'bags, and three months later the rear was also 'bagged. With a legitimately low mini on his hands, Mike took it out for a hard night of dragging around town. Mike had so much fun that he ended up dragging through the gas tank-good thing for him AAA makes service calls. That incident just gave him a good excuse to take the truck back into the two-car garage and tear it apart completely. So he started out by making the rockers rest on the earth, worked on the sheetmetal in the bed, cleaned up the interior, primered it, and drove it around for a year or so in that condition. Taking a hint from his previous driving behavior, Mike also moved the gas tank up a little higher.
With the bulk of the customizing taken care of, Mike then took his truck to Jeremy Foy and Tyler Smith in Kansas City, Missouri, to get some color. When Mike got it back from the body shop, it marked five weeks before his wedding date. However, he wanted to ditch the Dime's gutless 2.2L and put in the LS1 and six-speed manual transmission that were both salvaged from a wrecked Z28 Camaro. Two weeks before the big day, Mike and his now wife were out at dinner and he told her that if he could get the truck running in time they would be driving it to their wedding. After only a few hours spent wiring, hooking up some plumbing, and some other minor details, the S-10 fired on the first try. Needless to say, the happy couple didn't need a stinking limo to take them to the chapel.
Now if you ask Mike if he would have done anything differently, he says "Heck no." But the only bad thing about the whole build for him was the time the S-10 was down-he loves getting out and driving the wheels off his truck.
Check out the Lowdown to see what all was done to the LS1 before it was dropped in. Let's just say that just because you own a stock $60K sports car, don't think you can keep up with this Dime.