World's Quickest Street-Legal Vehicle is... 1998 Chevy S-10 Pickup

10 years, 3 months ago - 16 September 2014, Autoblog

In the pantheon of performance cars and trucks that have come across our radars, there exists a clear dividing line between those designed solely for use at a racetrack – be that a road circuit, oval, dirt track or drag strip – and those that can be driven to and from such a track.

Which makes sense, since any car that can legally be driven on the road must comply with a number of varied and complicated requirements that include proper safety glass, lighting bits, bumpers and treaded tires, while machines destined to live out their lives off our nation's highways need to do little more than go fast and provide a modicum of safety for its driver and any competitors.

All of that (probably unnecessary) preamble explains why there's so much interest in claiming the title as the world's quickest street-legal vehicle. And there's a new king on that ballyhooed throne. The location was a quarter-mile strip of asphalt in Tulsa, OK, the competition was the 2014 Drag Week event hosted by the boys at Hot Rod, the driver was Larry Larson and the vehicle was, get this, a 1998 Chevy S-10 pickup truck.

Video evidence can be seen above, and we suggest you head on over to Hot Rod to read more about Larry and his steel-bodied pickup after seeing for yourself what it's capable of. Yes, it certainly pushes the boundaries of what we'd consider "street legal," but it's an impressive accomplishment no matter which way you slice it.