Over the years, there have been projects that many of us have poured our heart and soul into. Unfortunately for most of us, those projects are long gone. We either sold them because we needed the money, or our lives changed and the truck just wasn’t practical anymore. No matter what the reason is, those vehicles will always have a special place in our hearts. For those lucky few that still have their babies, they are fortunate. Brett Deutsch is one of those lucky few.

“My grandpa gave me the truck when I was 15 years old,” said Deutsch in reference to this 1969 C10. The truck had a 3-53 Detroit Diesel engine in it when Deutsch received it. He and his father decided to give the truck a full make over. The truck was completely disassembled and taken down to bare metal. “I sand blasted every part on that truck including every nut and bolt. I did all the body work myself and my dad painted the truck with a base coat clear coat,” explained Deutsch.

The original bed was in pretty rough shape. Instead of completely reworking it, Deutsch opted to use a step side bed off of a ’95 1500 Silverado. For power, Deutsch originally opted for an ’89 TPI engine out of a Corvette. After putting a supercharger on it, the engine let go. So, a built 383 stroker went in its place and the supercharger was upgraded as well. After four years, he was tired of the 383 and decided it was time for something new.

“My dad started Deutsch’s Truck and Diesel Repair when I was 2 years old and I have been around diesels ever since. I knew when the time was right I wanted to put a Duramax in my truck. I found a guy selling a Workhorse bus chassis with the Duramax / Allison in it. The bus had zero miles on it because the company went bankrupt before they put a cab on it. I paid the same for the bus as what I sold my 383 stroker motor for,” commented Deutsch.

The engine has gone through a few iterations as Deutsch continues to be bitten by the horsepower bug. The engine was put together by the guru’s at Danville Performance. They opted to keep the block stock and didn’t feel there was any reason to mess with the crankshaft. For rods, they opted to install a set of Carrillo rods that are connected to Fingers’ oval bowl cast pistons. The camshaft is an alternate firing order camshaft by SoCal Diesel that has proven to be a crankshaft saver.

On top of the engine is a set of high flowing Wagler Competition heads that are held down with ARP studs. The Exergy Performance injectors are fueled by two Danville modified LBZ CP3 pumps. The CP3’s are supplied by an AirDog 200 lift pump which pulls the fuel from a custom aluminum fuel cell.

For air, three S475 Bullseye Power turbochargers built to Danville Performance’s specs were installed using an HSP Diesel piping kit. The atmospheric chargers suck air past an Engineered Diesel shutoff valve before sending everything to the high pressure charger. The high pressure charger then feeds the pressurized air to the Spearco intercooler.

“I have a custom race lift off hood I run on the street. I don’t run it at the track because people are always asking me to open the hood. Being a lift off hood I run the risk of scratching the paint so I just leave it off when I’m racing,” explained Deutsch. When Deutsch opted for the triples, he opted for a hood stack. The exhaust on the chargers is directed out the hood through a set of Old Skool Fab carbon fiber hood stacks.

Behind the engine, isn’t the tranny most people would expect. Deutsch had issues with the Allison almost from the word go. “I had no luck with the Allison transmission holding up to all the power, so after talking with a lot of people, I decided to go with a Turbo 400 three speed transmission built by Rossler Transmissions,” explained Deutsch. The TH400 is a very simple transmission and there are ton so aftermarket support. the torque converter is a custom lock-up from Neal Chance Racing Converters.

This Precision Performance Products shifter is all business and controls the 4R100 transmission.

When Deutsch finally pulled the trigger and opted to put the mighty Duramax into the truck, he, also, opted to lighten the truck up as much as he could without removing the creature comforts. “I decided I wanted to race in the NHRDA Pro Street class. I knew if I was going to be competitive I was going to have to get my truck as close to their minimum weight of 4500 pounds. At this time my truck weighed 5300 pounds. I still wanted to drive it on the street so I didn’t want to get rid of the A/C and I still wanted to go to car shows with it so I wanted to keep all the stainless steel under the hood,” explained Deutsch.

“I found an old frame for my truck and redid the whole frame again with thinner steel for boxing the frame. I boxed a lot less of the frame. Had a custom Ron Davis radiator made so it would fit in between the frame rails. Had a custom intercooler made to the size I wanted it, instead of using the bus intercooler. I bought an inner frame tube structure that I cut apart and made it work for my application. I got rid of the stock front suspension and gear box. Scott’s Hot Rods built me a custom independent front suspension with tubular A-arm and double adjustable front coil overs. I was, also, able to lose a lot of weight by installing rack and pinion steering with Wilwood front brakes and getting rid of the stock front bumper and installing a front roll pan,” continued Deutsch. All said and done, he did manage to get the truck down to 4530 pounds.

With this combination, the truck is currently making a little over 1,100 horsepower to the rear tires and to date, his best run is an 8.81 at 158 mph in the quarter mile. He is currently the ET NHRDA and NADM World Record holder for the Pro Street class. The video above is the pass that set the NHRDA record. Notice that the rear of the truck is wrapped. Deutsch still baby’s his truck as much as he can, while running the quarter mile at a blistering eight second pass.

Deutsch said, “I couldn’t have done it without my wife, parents, and sponsors. Danville Performance, HSP Diesel, Wagler Competition, Bullseye Power, Neal Chance Racing Converters, FlexiCorps Racing, and Deutsch’s Truck Repair.”