The Super Boss !

 

Jerry 'Tyrone' Malone was a truck driver who found fame with his custom diesel show and race trucks.

He made a name for himself when he was touring the country charging people to see a whale that he transported in a trailer, the whale's was named Little Irvy. 

Jerry Malone had a fleet of custom trucks that toured with him, one day a spectator asked him other then looking cool, what else does the truck do?  Do? Jerry said, what it was intended to do, look good.

 

After that brief encounter, Jerry's wheels were turning and thought if he built a truck that put on a show, he could charge people to see it in action. What he ended up building was the Super Boss Kenworth.

This 1974 Kenworth was famous throughout the 1970's.  It was so popular that it was still touring well into the 1980's.

 The Super Boss was part of a touring custom truck show, it featured customized Big Rig hauling trucks as well as few racing semis like this one. Jerry Malone was considered to be the Evil Knievel of the truck world.

 The Super Boss can reach speeds of 112 MPH in the quarter mile and can melt its Bandag tires for over 1000 feet with ease, Tyrone would also throw in in a few 360 degree donuts and the crowds would go wild.

The body features a custom one piece fiberglass front end with a trio of wing-lets that provide some much needed down force as the KW has the aerodynamics of large building.

Back then there was no such thing as carbon-fiber so the grille is a real deal heavy chrome plated factory piece. 

 The rear of the truck featured a wing that was so large it could have came from a 747 airliner. It was designed to keep the rear end down at high-speeds but in reality it caused too much drag and it ultimately hindered the truck causing it to fall short of its intended top speed of 200 MPH.

 Custom paint work covers the body from front to back, with air-bushed graphics showing where this monster of truck has been. In this view we can also see the huge chrome exhaust pipes that exit the turbochargers.

 

                                                        Some of the Super Boss's records.

                                                     Classic promotional materials from when the truck was racing.

 In the early 1970's people were just beginning to figure out how to make big power with diesel engines.  The Super Boss is powered by a twin turbocharged Detroit Diesel V12 that's making over 1,000 horsepower ! All that horsepower is sent through an Alison 5-speed automatic transmission then down to a modified Dana Spicer rear end with a custom high-speed gear ratio.

 

 

                                   The Super Boss in action, performing crazy high-speed J-turns to wild 360 degree burnouts!

 

The ruck was so popular that AMT made a model of the truck, even Match Box made die-cast replicas of the diesel monster.

 They even produced a replica kit of the custom transport truck that Jerry Malone drove across the country with the Super Boss on the back.

Both of these kits are being reproduced today.

 

                    Jerry "Tyrone " Malone with the Super Boss and transporter in the early 1980's.

 

 With the success of the Super Boss, the Bandag tire president commissioned Jerry Malone to build him a similar truck. He built a black version and named it the Bandag Bandit.  It also had a matching flatbed transporter and they toured the country together.  

In January 1988, Martin Carver slipped behind the controls of the Bandag Bandit, driving it to a new world land speed record. He was clocked at over 150 miles per hour. It became the fastest diesel truck and broke the land speed record that Jerry Malone set in the Super Boss.

 

                                                        More to come on these fantastic trucks!