Whether you are a fan of the break out hit series Street Outlaws or not, you’ve probably heard of Justin “Big Chief” Shearer and his crew of horsepower hooligans over at Midwest Streetcars Automotive. And while you may not care for the show and what it promotes, it’s pretty hard to argue against the fact that the shop produces its fair share of radical rides. It just wouldn’t be right if their shop truck didn’t follow suit, which is exactly why Big Chief decided that this 2007 Chevrolet Silverado shop truck needed a healthy dose of pressurized atmosphere.
You may remember Shearer’s previous shop truck which made its initial debut in the first season of the show; a red 2005 Silverado single-cab that was also sporting a single snail. Allegedly the truck produced upwards of 1,000 horsepower and was just about as crazy as shop trucks get. Unfortunately— or fortunately if you bought it— the red shop truck no longer calls Midwest Streetcars home. We’re sure that Shearer, just like anyone who has sold an awesome vehicle, eventually regretted letting the short bed go and decided to build this beaut which he affectionately refers to as “Wanda.”
The build starts out with the 5.3-liter motor being removed from the truck so that the custom “Big Chief” camshaft can be installed with all the supporting hardware. A ProTorque torque converter is slipped into the tranny while the truck is absent its heart as well. For reasons unknown to us, the oil pan and heads are also removed— possibly for inspection, or for ARP bolts to be installed, after which the bullet is reassembled and placed back in the chassis.
Shearer then lays the ProCharger kit out and inspects the parts. During his discussion of the system, he professes to have purchased the kit himself and refuses to even state what the ProCharger-claimed gains are without personally putting them to the test, which seems a little fishy to us. He claims to not be a big fan of belt-driven supercharger systems, despite the fact that he somehow has a ProCharger banner and his best friend, and co-proprietor of Midwest Streetcars, ran a crank-driven version on a car dubbed “The Murder Nova” for the entire first season of Street Outlaws.
Regardless, the build moves on and sees the addition of Stainless Works headers— for which they suspiciously also have a banner for. Next comes some aggressive hole-sawing of the factory bed to make way for a side-exit exhaust. The exhaust actually turns out pretty cool and gives the truck a pretty mean snarl. The truck is eventually placed on the dyno where it makes 558 horsepower at the rear wheels all while supposedly running out of fuel. All said and done, a little 5.3 that makes as much horsepower at the tires as a fifth-gen ZL1 Camaro does at the crank is nothing to sneeze at. While Shearer might not be a fan of “belt-drive horsepower,” it’s hard to argue with results like that. And, if you ask us, we’ll take gobs of horsepower anyway we can get them. But that might just be us.