One thing you can always count on at the SEMA show is a vehicle or two that truly stands out from the crowd. Over the years, we have seen builders like Boyd Coddington, Chip Foose, Troy Trepanier, Ring Brothers, Detroit Speed, and others build cutting-edge, award-winning hot rods and classics to display the show. In fact, SEMA honored Foose this year with a monstrous space showcasing several of his builds through the years. However, while the buzz at the show is usually a hot rod, it was a little different this year.

On day one of the SEMA show, HP Tuners had a vehicle under a black cover in the booth that had some unique lines. And while some didn’t know what lurked under the black satin cloth, we knew exactly what they were hiding underneath. It was none other than the DeBerti C10 Slayer.

The DeBerti C10 Slayer

The DeBerti’s are a father-son team based out of Mooresville, North Carolina, and while their website showcases a ton of billet parts for vehicles, they also assemble some complete wicked rides. The latest from the Deberti stable is the C10 Slayer. Of course, we’ve seen hundreds, if not thousands of these trucks over the years, but we’ve never seen one as radical as this.

Before the truck’s unveiling, so many people were packed around it that security had to be brought in. Brad DeBerti, the son of Doug DeBerti, said, “I’ve never done an unveiling before. So, we came to the booth that morning, and it was crazy. There had to be 300 to 400 people waiting for us to reveal the truck.” As the cover was removed, jaws dropped as one of the wildest creations at SEMA was unveiled. From the stacked fuel injection system atop a massive supercharger to the tandem axles on the rear of the C10, if there’s one thing the truck does well, it’s command attention. 

With a vehicle like the C10 Slayer, it’s hard to know what to look at first, but the engine certainly caught our eye. Under the hood sits a Chevrolet Performance LSX376-B15 crate engine combined with a 5.0-liter Whipple supercharger and a set of massive red fuel-injection stacks. The supercharged mill connects to a 4L80 ATD transmission and sends the power through a QA1 carbon-fiber driveshaft to the first 9-inch rear axle, passing through to the second rear axle.

“There was a lot of customization to get the first axle to work before we could tie it to the rear,” Brad explained. 

While the truck was running under its own power at the show, there’s still work to be done on the tuning side. But when the guys plug in the HP Tuners and start tuning the truck, they expect to be at or slightly above the 1,000 horsepower mark on pump gas. 

The aero on the truck is truly unique. It features a wide-body kit, a front splitter, half rear fenders, and one massive rear wing. The DeBerti’s decided to paint the truck satin black before wrapping it a similar color. The idea here was as the truck gets rock chips from either cruising down the freeway or doing massive burnouts, the wrap would take the brunt of the abuse and not the paint job. 

When we asked Brad his favorite thing about the truck, he said, “I love that the C10 Slayer is just wrong. And what I mean by that is we have American muscle mixed with JDM wide-body, supercharged LSX, and massive aero. It’s a six-wheeled monster.”

Another interesting thing about the truck was watching people try to walk by it, not knowing what it was. The confusion on their faces told the story, as did awkward stop-and-goes before they committed to entering the HP Tuners booth to get a closer look. Brad said, “This is a project that I wanted to build, and people remember. When you’re at a show like SEMA with tens of thousands of vehicles, this one is still going to stick out.” And whether you love it or hate it, there’s no denying that.