The SEMA show is an annual pilgrimage for all things performance, racing, and custom. From new parts and products to custom cars, trucks, and engine builds. Both the parking lot and inside the Las Vegas Convention Center are filled with vehicles of all types and styles, but if you really want to stand out, you have to capture that “wow factor”. Gas Monkey Garage did just that with their latest build which they simply called “The Black Truck”.

At Gas Monkey Garage, every project is a chance to push the boundaries and think outside of the box with their builds, and ‘The Black Truck’ is no exception. This sinister-looking all-black OBS GMC pickup blends raw power with sleek and understated aesthetics. Under the hood of this custom half-ton short-bed widebody pickup is a twin-turbo LS pumping out some serious power for the street.

Texas Speed and Performance recently added a new short-block to their Brawler series of short-blocks called “The Reaper,” consisting of an iron six-bolt Dart block, Callies eight-counterweight, 4.000-inch stroke crankshaft, Callies Compstar Extreme forged 4340 steel 6.125-inch rods, and Wiseco forged aluminum 4.155-inch bore pistons. A short-block like this is built for one reason and one reason only: big boost.

TSP threw on a pair of their 285cc LS-based cylinder heads and a Plazmaman billet intake manifold. Feeding boost to this 434 cubic-inch LS is a pair of Hellion 66/62 turbochargers exhaling through Magnaflow XMod mufflers and quad tips exiting through the roll pan at the rear. This combination makes over 1,600 horsepower and an Aeromotive fuel system was picked to handle fuel delivery duty.

The front tires are 12 inches wide and the rears are 16 inches wide, for a total of 56 inches of rubber hitting the road.

Gas Monkey Garage purchased three different regular-cab short-bed pickups to get the parts they needed to build this murdered-out pickup. They used the frame of one, the cab from another, and mixed and matched the sheet metal from all three to get a solid foundation they could build off of. That chassis is riding on Ridetech suspension, Wilwood brakes, and a Quick Performance Fab9 rear axle. That beefy Ford 9-inch-based axle and the billet Turbo 400 it is connected to are required to handle the four-digit horsepower being produced under the hood.

The front flares were molded out of fiberglass by hand, 3D scanned, and then 3D printed to make a matching pair.

To give “The Black Truck” the best chance at holding traction on the street, for acceleration and braking, massive rubber was fitted to JTX Regal Street wheels on all four corners. The tires measure 355/35R22 on the 22×12-inch wheel up front and 405/25R24 on the 24×15-inch wheels out back. This brings us to the best feature on the exterior of this truck; the fender flares. For this widebody pickup, the front flares were custom formed by hand out of fiberglass and then 3D scanned so a perfect pair could be 3D printed for both sides. The rear flares are based on factory dually flares for a C3500 pickup, but custom-trimmed to match the look of the front flares.

Richard Rawlings and his team at Gas Monkey Garage had less than 50 days before SEMA 2024 to get this widebody OBS GMC ready and running. With all the custom bodywork and 1,600-plus horsepower drivetrain, this is quite a feat. The result is an all-black widebody pickup fit for Darth Vader’s daily driver that does more than capture that standout “wow factor” with four-digit power and 16-inch wide rear tires.