Pro-touring Semi?

[DLinson]

Okay, it's not a street driven semi but it is still cool. It is Mike Ryan's Race Semi. It uses a 1200+ hp twin turbo V6 Mercedes desil engine. It has a full tube frame with a three link rear suspension. The front suspension is a 4-bar setup with a panhard bar. One side of the axle mount on the front is a slip collar to eliminate the binding.

It is interesting how racing suspension design is similar for the big rigs as it is for Trans Am cars. The three link rear suspension as watts link was pretty impressive. The upper third link has a huge coil sping incorporated in it similar to dirt track racers.

The wing on top puts down about 2000 lbs of force at 80 mph. It is in it's storage position in the photos so it fits in the trailer.

Mike brought it by our work a few weeks ago to measure the brake forces and check the alignment. This is his Pike's Peak hill climb truck. He also races it at different road courses like Laguna Seca I believe. It had a real bitchen idle. A coworked said that it's unnatural hearing that kind of idle without smelling Nitromethane.

Dennis

[trackrat79]

The teams over in europe raod race thier semi's with stock suspensions. The only additions are water cooling for the breaks and safety equipment. Its awsome, they beat the hell out of each other. IF you finish the race with all you body panels you're ither realy slow or realy fast and started on pole.

[grey899]

should be kinda of cool.

Dave

[CAMAROBOY69]

I would love to see that thing on video at Pikes peak or Laguna. 2 of my favorite tracks.

[J.P]

--AWESOME TRUCK!--Here Are Some Pics Of My Pro-touring Kenworth. It Was Built By Canepa Design In 1987 as a concept truck for K.W.[Bruce Canepa Is The Guy that races that red Kenworth T-2000 At Pikes Peak]-it Was Way Ahead Of Its Time..it Has A Caterpillar 3406 Turbo-charged Air To Air Intercooled Engine.13speed Transmission,355 Gears And Huge Eaton Air-disc Brakes All The Way Around. Fuel System Has Been Blueprinted And It Only Makes About 490 Horsepower.---but It Makes Up For It With Almost 2000ft/lbs Of Torque!

[69rs]

JP, how does one come by a truck like that? Is it a working truck or show truck? Looks great!

[Chad-1stGen]

Dunno about pro touring but about a month ago while driving south on highway 5 here in SoCal I passed buy a blinged out Semi. Looked to be a mid 80's Semi with no sleeper. It had a killer flames paint job, chrome everywhere, spinners (of all things) and could of just been my immagination but the tiers looked like lower profile or something. It was hauling some crumy looking box trailer. I sure did a double take when I saw it. Wish I had a pic.

[J.P]

Thanks for the compliment Jim!---I found it on a used truck lot in Fontana,Ca.while I was making a delivery in 1995.-I was in the market for a new truck at the time. It had a 120,000 miles on it{and for a cat motor thats not even broken in}-my old K.W had 1.8 million miles on it .It still ran good,but the cab was worn out-you couldn't heat or cool it!--lol! So I struck a deal and bought it. I saw a truck like it in "american trucker magazine" in 1987.-I was 17 at the time and I was a big fan of Bruce Canepa's work.--After doing a little research and talking to Bruce I found out that this truck was the only K100E he ever built. He does a lot of design work for the OEM'S. He had a hand in the porsche "959" and lamborghini 25th anniversary body work/"ground effects".-He had been building race teams custom transport trailers,and few of them wanted a truck to match.--so next thing he knew he was in the truck design biz!--all the side fairings, roof cap,mirriors,headlight buckets.[uses isuzu trooper headlights},sunvisor [uses porsche 944 turnsignal for marker lights]grab handles,[moved in closer to cab for better aero dynamics]bumper,] uses 944 turbo driving lights]-is custom one-off.--you really don't notice all of it until you park it next to stock K100E.--Its very subtle!---Bruce told me when he first built it it had a flat bottom fairing that smoothed out the air underneath--a little formula1/indy car technology! -The California D.O.T had a cow about that so he took it off!--lol!---He said in preliminary testing the truck got over 9 miles to the gallon.--todays trucks do good to get 6mpg with all the electronic gadgets!----so to finally answer your question----It started out as a show truck to show kenworth what they could do with an existing product,--It showed up at sema, and the international trucking show in 1987. It was on the cover of american trucker magazine nov.87.,sold to an outfit that hauled indy cars out of Longbeach,Ca.,They went bankrupt and the truck sat up in storage for 7 years and then I bought it.-- My dad and I ran it from NEWJERSEY TO L.A on a weekly basis {in 52hrs}hauling clothing or electronics. We parked it when the trucking business took a nose dive in 2001.-It has 1.4 million miles on it now and still drives great!-----and the sad thing is if I sold it I probably couldn't get enough money out of it to put a down payment on a new pick-up!--lol!-----. www.canepa.com www.chromeshopmafia.com

[Slider]

I'll be heading to Pikes Peak next month to document his effort on the hill! We'll be hanging cameras all over and inside his rig for his test, practice and race runs, and also be working it from the air and ground. That truck has the most incredible exhaust note, and under full boost it pumps so much black smoke out the pipes it's scary!

[sinned]

. Fuel System Has Been Blueprinted And It Only Makes About 490 Horsepower

Why so low? With all work in it did you have it turned down?

[J.P]

It was originally rated at 425 horsepower. After blueprinting the fuel system it made 490 to the ground on the dyno at Kenworth of Fontana. and it does so with out pouring out black smoke.not bad for mechanical fuel system/stock 4 and a quarter cat.-I figure if I ever rebuild it I'll upgrade the injectors,turbo and port and polish the head.--that should be good for 650-750 horsepower and 2400 ft/lbs of torque.--then I can worry about turning transmissions and drive axles into jello!---lol..

[J.P]

I Would Love To See them run at pikes peak...I heard they are paving the road all the way up the mountain.--Do you know if they are finished with that road project?

[jetsiphon]

I was going to say that looked like a Hill Climb truck.....

[J.P]

those guys are pouring some serious$$$$ in those hill climb trucks!

[Slider]

They are planning on paving a mile a year for the next 10 or so years. It's really a sad story: Some Greenpeace eco idiots sued the local city or county for some insane amount of money claiming that the dirt road to the Peak was causing undoe dirt runnoff and damaging local streams. (the road has only been there since the late 1890's!) They have 10 years to comply with a court order, so they are going to take their time- but the end result is the Pikes Peak Hillclimb- the second oldest motorsports event in the US (second only to the Indy 500) will never be the same. Mike Ryan's website www.fastrucks.com

[ProStreet R/T]

Thats awesome, it's wild seeing 10 tons of ginormous truck going that fast.

Oh and I have wheel/tire envy. Been wanting a set of those 385/65/22.5 super singles for my superduty for quite some time now.