You don't win a 1,000-horsepower supertruck painted in bright red every day. But, well, it does happen sometimes, and you feel like you won the lottery. Unless smoke comes out from underneath the hood on the first test drive.
Cleetus McFarland and his team built a supercharged 1,000-horsepower GMC pickup truck, with that jaw-dropping power coming out of a 7.4-liter naturally aspirated ZR7. That engine has got 382 miles, with 40 of them put on the clock the night before during a test drive. Cleetus wanted to make sure everything worked properly.
Anthony from Mississippi is the winner of the giveaway. He came all the way from Florida and brought a trailer for his precious prize because, of course, he couldn't drive two pickup trucks at the same time.
The moment he laid eyes on the GMC supertruck, he fell in love with it. The moment he heard that engine roar, he was speechless.
Anthony used to have a GMC Sierra, too. But someone rear-ended it when it had 16,000 miles on the clock. "I'm glad I didn't have this truck 20 years ago. I'd be in jail," Anthony jokes.
The new owner signs the paperwork and goes for a test drive with a grin on his face of the size of the state of Texas, while Cleetus McFarland is in the passenger seat.
Photo: Cleetus McFarland | YouTube
A few donuts later, though, smoke came out from under the hood, and Cleetus was the first one to see it. He asked the new owner of the truck to pull over and pop up the hood.
"Our worst nightmare," he said. He and the team never had a giveaway vehicle fail on the first test drive run by the owner. But they were going to fix the faulty engine and use it for some other vehicle. Anthony was the last to complain about the situation that forced him to extend his stay in Florida.
Cleetus had tested the truck himself on the night before, but had no issue whatsoever. Coolant came out of the catch can. They eventually found the leak within the head casting.
They planned to take out this engine out and transplant an LT that was built for another project in its place. So, Anthony would drive back home with a brand-new engine and no headache whatsoever.
The brand-new zero-mile engine arrived at the shop. They were done at 02:30 AM that night and the truck ran and drove perfectly. Cleetus took it on a test drive again and concluded: "Perfetto," doing the typical Italian gesture with his hand. In fact, he just couldn't get enough of the truck. The final test was checking if there was any coolant in the oil, but this time, everything was fine.
Anthony arrived in the morning for delivery 2.0. All team members held their breath while he did donuts with the truck again. But the new owner popped up the hood in the end and all fluids were in place.
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