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Originally Posted by KingElvis
Here's a very limited edition "Amarillo" '79 GMC. The expensive tape stripe option could be combined with any engine, but the 454 was chosen for magazine road tests.
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Great rundown on the muscletrucks of the late 70's I've got all the PV4 issues from that era (including the pictures from this post). It's great to see Don E. Brown mentioned. PV4 was the best truck magazine ever. When I was a sophomore in high school, we had an English assignment to write to a celebrity to try to get them to send an autograph back. Instead of a movie, TV, or rock star, I wrote to Don E. Brown. He had just returned from the London-to-Sydney rally and I said something about that. He sent me a handwritten letter back thanking me and telling me a little bit about the rally, plus an autographed copy of the issue with the London-to-Sydney story in it. Great guy.
BTW, minor correction to your GMC trim levels: Sierra = Custom Deluxe, Seirra Grande = Scottsdale, High Sierra = Cheyenne, and Sierra Classic = Silverado. This was for '75-'81. For '73-74, it was Custom = Custom, Super Custom = Custom Deluxe, Sierra = Cheyenne, and Sierra Grande = Cheyenne Super.
One more thing: The heavy duty emission cutoff was raised from 6000 lbs. to 8500 lbs. in 1979, not 1980. GM did keep the big-block in the half-tons in '79, but as most the articles mentioned, with a cat-converter and single exhaust, it was a mere shadow of it's former self, and dropped from under 8500 lb. applications entirely in 1980, not returning until the 454 SS pickup of 1990.