Boss-Powered 1956 F-100 Wins America’s Most Beautiful Truck Award

The Grand National Truck Show had a great turnout of high-quality pickups and vans in only its second year. Held in the same venue as its big sister, the Grand National Roadster Show, the truck-and-van-only event invites the best custom-built show trucks to compete for the title of America’s Most Beautiful Truck. This year, 11 gorgeous trucks were invited to vie for the title, and a team of judges pored over them to select a winner.

When the dust settled, Ed Ganzinotti’s 1956 Ford F-100 was selected as the winner. He took home an impressive trophy and a check from ARP for $12,500. His F-100 was built over a two-and-a-half-year period by the crew at Classic Car Studio in St. Louis, Missouri. When Ganzinotti started the project, the title of America’s Most Beautiful Truck didn’t exist. He also competed for the Al Slonaker Memorial Award at the Grand National Roadster Show, but the Grand National Truck Show proved to be the perfect venue.

The foundation of this flawless black beauty is a chassis built by the late “Fat Jack” Robinson. It’s powered by a 540-cubic-inch Jon Kaase Boss Nine V-8 that adapts new, Boss-429-style heads onto standard 385-series Ford big-blocks. The V-8 breathes through Borla individual throttle bodies that look gorgeous. The truck isn’t just a work of art, however: the high-flowing heads help the engine make about 800 horsepower for effortless cruising, and the truck does have some miles on it already. Now that its big show win is in its rearview, it can spend more miles on the road.

Ganzinotti and the crew from Classic Car Studio had a lot of top-tier competition, and judges had a tough time weeding the field down to final contenders, each of whom were given extra scrutinizing. It seemed that Bill Paul’s 1934 Ford pickup homage to the California Kid and Mark DeAtley’s LT4-powered 1972 C10 were among the finalists under consideration, while show attendees would cluster around many of the other contenders and marvel at the design and execution of various aspects of each truck. Despite covering several different styles of build and many different eras, all the trucks had incredible attention to detail in the paint, interior, chassis, and engine, making the judging difficult.

We had a soft spot for the 1966 Chevy ramp truck that Tony Gomez built. The big hauler was built to match his 1955 Chevy that he showed at this year’s Grand National Roadster Show. He didn’t bring the ’55 this time because this is a truck-specific show, but we’d love to see them shown together.

Next year’s Grand National Truck Show will be held in September, but the two-day event might shift to a Friday/Saturday format instead. No matter how it returns, expect another crop of amazing trucks vying for the title of America’s Most Beautiful Truck. Take a look at wide variety of contenders and see if you’d pick a different winner.