First off, I have 3 vehicles at my house:
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a 2000 Ranger that is my daily driver with A/C, custom stereo, cruise control, etc
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My 67 Cougar, “the toy” which is an ongoing project
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My 77 F150 4X4 which is the first vehicle I ever owned and has proven to be the most dependable, indestructible, simple vehicle ever created. It used to have a 351M, but now has a 416/C6 combo in it. I bought the 400 (bored .060 over to be a 416) short block from Napa, reused my open chamber Cleveland heads that I have cleaned up the ports, put roller rockers, edelbrock cam that is big enough to know that the truck isn’t quite stock sitting at idle, 4 barrel weiand intake and Holley 600 cfm carb, long tube headers, and dual 2.25" exhaust. This truck is the vehicle in the following story…
This truck is 3 different colors: the original red on the cab and front clip, faded red on the doors, and the bed is orange from a 78 donor. It has 31X11.5 street tires on the front, and 31X12.5 street tires on the back on American Racing Outlaw 1 rims with a limited slip in the 9", which has 3.50:1 gears in the rear, so it is a little slow off the line with those tires. From afar, It looks like it is lucky to actually be running, but can torque twist the frame when in park and revving it, so it is somewhat of a sleeper to people who don’t know the truck.
I had just torn the roof off my shed, which the previous owner had made 3 layers thick of shingles on the front, and 3 layers of shingles plus a layer of mineral paper on the back. It was enough weight to make the ridge beam start to bow. All of this was in contractor bags and in the back of the truck. I am guessing the poor 1/2 ton had 1000-1200 pounds in the bed and was riding “a little” low in the back to take this whole mess to the dump.
Its early on a sunday, streets are empty, and I am at a red light with the windows rolled down (no A/C) sweating my butt off (torn transfer case shifter boot, so header heat comes right up into the cab) and minding my own business (no radio installed). Up pulls a Honda Civic with the usual fin, giant muffler, and at least 300HP worth of stickers on the front fenders (those NOS stickers add about 25HP a piece 
). He does the usual rev that sounds like me trying to warm up the Homelite weed eater to get my attention. I glance over, give a “sure why not” shoulder shrug, and look ahead again.
Light turns green, and the load in the bed actually let the truck plant the tires and launch without spinning at all. How it didn’t spit the U-joints out or break the tail gate and leave the bags in the middle of the road I am still wondering to this day.
It was just a short red light to red light run, but the old Ford spanked that Honda off the line and kept pulling away thanks to peak torque of just under 500 ft-lbs coming in right around 2000 RPM and being a fairly flat curve up till about 4500 RPM. I only got it up to about 60 (was still pulling in 2nd gear at that point) before letting off for the next set of red lights and having to stop all the weight that I just got moving.
Once the secondaries on the Holley open up, that truck gets LOUD to let him know that he might have picked the wrong “beater” pickup to toy with assuming it would an easy “win” to brag to the import crowd about. For some reason he didn’t want to go again at the next set of lights. I even offered to be quick at the dump so we could go again after the truck was back down its normal weight. When he asked what I mean, I realized his car sat so low, he had no clue what was in the back. When I told him I had over 1000 lbs in the bed and the truck was a lot slower than normal, he still declined. Oh well…
Poor little fella. Its rare that I am driving that truck when I see the imports driving around who think 210HP at 9000 RPM means they can beat “old heavy American iron” easily. Having it be a day when I was using it as a work truck, and it still not disappointing me made it that much sweeter.