When it comes to classic trucks that yearn for a touch of hot rodding, few can match the allure of a Chevrolet Loadmaster. These trucks from the Chevy Advance-Design era boast a timeless appeal and exude an extraordinary charm when lowered close to the ground, accompanied by a robust V-8 engine occupying the expansive engine bay. But what if one were to go beyond traditional hot rodding? What if the goal was to infuse the Loadmaster with the spirit of modern open-wheel racecars, all while maintaining the distinctive aesthetic of the Advance-Design era? Well, that’s precisely the essence of the Enyo super truck.
Metal Cab, Carbon Elsewhere
This 1948 Chevy Loadmaster wasn’t created in a month, day, or even a single year. The design, just by itself, took nearly three months of CAD hours, and the actual build took 10,000 shop hours spread over several years. The result, however, was taking a 1.5-ton pickup from the late 1940s and turning it into something that would be at home on a racetrack with the best that a factory effort like Corvette Racing could offer. If you’re familiar with the Loadmaster 1.5-ton, you’ll notice that the body looks a bit small, even with its open-wheel look. That’s because the original steel cab was modified by narrowing it four inches, chopping it down four inches, lengthened by two inches, and wedge cut two to four inches through the cab. This work to the Enyo’s cab required custom windshield panes. The original Loadmaster as the grille, doors, hood, and bedsides were recreated by molding them in carbon fiber.
You’ll notice more carbon fiber when you look around the chassis: a full belly pan, rear diffuser, front spoiler, rear wing, torque tube, brake and air intake ducts were also custom made from this exotic material. To light the way, custom LED lighting sits inside custom carbon fiber pods that mimic the iconic shape and design of the Advanced-Design fenders, which are obviously missing due to being an open-wheel truck. The rear LED brake lights are custom made and flush mounted to their aluminum housings and attached to the inner sides of the carbon fiber bedsides. Meanwhile, the cab, doors, bedsides, and hood were all shot in BASF Glasurit Mythic Battle Green by Global Finishing Solutions, while everything else is exposed or painted black.
A Chassis Fit For the Track
Even more custom and trick work was done on the Enyo’s chassis, a custom, one-off unit made by the Roadster Shop and developed in conjunction with Ahlman Engineering. Ahlman is a chassis engineering firm that’s worked with Honda Performance Development’s IndyCar teams on their vehicle dynamics simulation software, (what was) Roush Fenway Racing, and on the previous Ford GT in which they developed the method to predict the required stiffness for its chassis. It’s a full cantilever fully independent suspension that puts the weight of the Ohlins TTX coilovers on the center of the chassis. These are then matched to a set of Swift springs to keep the dynamics of the chassis under control.
Those custom push-rods and tubular A-arms are connected to custom machined uprights and bellcranks that are absolute works of art on their own, but wouldn’t work too well if they weren’t attached to something that contacts the ground. The Enyo is designed to run on both the street and race tracks, so two sets of wheels and tires are used, depending on where it’s being run. Both sets of wheels are HRE custom wheels made to work with 911 centerlock components. The street wheels and tires measure out to 11×18 fronts wearing Michelin Pilot Sports in 315/30R18 front and 13.5×19 rear wheels enveloped in massive Bridgestone Potenzas in 345/35R19.
Slick Tricks
A second set of wheels are race bred and even more massive. The front HRE wheels are 13×18 with a 315/30R18 and the rears are an astounding 15×18 with a 365/35R18 tire. The tires are Goodyear Racing Eagle G-19 slicks and used by Trans Am TA1 and FIA GT1 teams. Under those wheels sits a set of Brembo GTS M6 brakes with six-piston calipers in the front while an E-Stopp electric parking brake kit helps keep Enyo from rolling away when parked. The fun part is that, due to the fact this is a truck, the bed allows for much of those suspension components to be exposed for everyone to see, including the Nuke Performance air jack system to lift the Enyo up for quicker tire changes and chassis work.
You’ll also notice that the radiators were relocated to the rear, similar to many sports cars you’d see racing with a front-engine and transaxle setup like Enyo. Those fan shrouds and covers are custom CNC machined by Ringbrothers and match many other round elements found on Enyo like the headlight heat-sink caps
Big Cubes Means Big Power
With that in mind, we’ll now move on to the engine and drivetrain, which are as wild as this open-wheeler pickup truck. If you were a fan of the original Can-Am or insane horsepower of the IMSA GTP series in the late 1980s and early 1990s, you’re going to love what Ringbrothers did here. First, to get under the hood, you must disengage the custom electromagnetic latches and lift the clamshell hood forward to reveal everything.
Enyo is set up like many race cars were and the C5-C7 Corvette was: engine in the front, transaxle in the back, with a torque tube connecting them together. The engine is a 510 cu. in. (8.4 liters for you metric folks), tall deck V-8 based off the LS engine architecture from Goodwin Competition Race Engines. It’s topped by a Kinsler LS-Sprint Car eight-stack injection system with a Holley EFI engine management system controlling it. Out of the backside of the engine, the custom-made carbon fiber torque tube leads into a Bowler Performance 4L80E automatic transmission. It’s set up as a C6 Corvette-style transaxle and takes the full brunt of that Goodwin LS V-8s 1,000 horsepower, at least when it’s filled with 110 octane race fuel in the custom stainless-steel fuel tank by Rick’s Tanks.
The exhaust is a fully fabricated and one-off set of stainless steel headers that wrap back at the front at the firewall, before making another 180 degree turn after the collector to flow back to the custom pie-cut titanium side pipe exhausts that lead out to the carbon fiber barge boards. It’s probably not the most efficient way to dump the exhaust, but it looks damn cool.
Lightweight Interior
Inside, shifter is a custom, 18 piece assembly made from titanium and mounts to a carbon tube that covers the torque tube as it passes through the cab. That shifter also matches the pedal assembly and pedals that sit just above the carbon fiber floor. The doors are also made from carbon and have exposed elements along with custom made powered side windows. The door card is painted to match Enyo’s body color with a leather armrest with contrasting Mythic Battle Green stitching. The handle, latch, and trim around the card are all made from custom CNC machined parts.
The rear glass is also custom and powered like a modern pickup, but sitting above the heads of the occupants of the Enyo is a carbon fiber headliner. The other major control for the driver is the steering wheel, and nothing off the shelf would do for this very advanced Loadmaster. The face and rim of the steering wheel was custom CNC machined by Sparc Industries before the rim was then covered by carbon fiber with a large center ring mounted at the top of the wheel. The bottom is a modern flat design while the large oval top allows for easy viewing of the custom Dakota Digital gauges—with matching Mythic Battle Green highlights mounted in the carbon fiber dash that features a leather top with a Mythic Battle Green contrasting stitch. Immediately in the reach of the right hand of the driver are the controls to start the engine, operate the wipers, and control the Vintage Air Gen II compact air-conditioning system and custom machined for an amazing look and functionality to remove weight.
Why An Open-Wheel Inspired Truck Build?
Ringbrothers owners Mike and Jim Ring have always built high-tech, higher-performance vehicles from classic pony and muscle cars we all know and love. However, the challenge of making such a technologically advanced designed vehicle from a truck made in the late 1940s was just the perfect way to showcase their abilities.
Jim, meanwhile, is just happy to be able to show off Enyo, which has changed many times during its years-long build and design. “We have been quietly planning this build for years, imagining and reimagining how it would ultimately take shape,” said Ringbrothers co-owner Jim Ring. “The end result is truly a super truck that brings together two vehicles that should never have met to deliver immense character combined with power and performance usually reserved for today’s most advanced race cars.”
You can find Enyo at the 2022 SEMA Show in Las Vegas at the Las Vegas Convention Center at the Mothers Polish booth number 22357 from now and until the close of the show on November 4. The three other builds from Ringbrothers includes “Bully,” an off-road ready 1,200 hp 1972 K5 Blazer at the NHRA Booth (23295); “Strode,” a 1969 Camaro, a car that was fully designed in the digital world before being brought into reality with a 1,000 hp supercharged LS3 V-8 at the Keystone booth (21249); and “Patriarc,” a 1969 Ford Mustang with a groundbreaking aerodynamic design and a Ford Performance 5.2-liter Aluminator V-8 in the Centerforce booth (23813).
