Back in 92, Pete built a limited number of goldstar editions. Reserved for their new flagship, the 377 setback axle aero conventional. This truck was the way of the future...... but like the Porsche 911 and the 928, the classically styled 379 just did not want to die. And this beautiful truck ran a couple of years, and the model range slowly died and was replaced by the 387...... which would also not see the end of the 379 or as it is now known.... 389.
I have never seen a 377 in HO scale. If this doesn't sell, I will have a place for it somewhere. Very very rare model, especially in the gold edition. Sublime model too. Made by HighSpeed and the detail is brilliant for a die cast body. I like the way they did the wheels.
Very special model. Very close to my heart.... because I killed one.
Was November 1996. I was having a bad time. I just bought a new Western Star, and with all the luck in the world turned away from me, I turned my truck over. 5km from my yard. It was fixable and while in for repairs, I needed to get back on the road. Its like falling off a bicycle, you need to get up and go.
Jackson transport had one of these 377's. Fitted with a 475 CAT motor and high speed diffs, it was their flagship, driven by a truck fanatic..... who went on leave the day I turned my truck over. Jacques du Randt, the owner of Jacksons, phoned me up and offered me the truck to drive until mine is up and running again. I was comfortable with these long nose monsters, and Jacques trusted me. I knew my way around a conventional.
So, I loaded in Pretoria, destination Cape Town. About 28 tonnes of glass from Consol in a 30 palletter Reefer. Off I went. I was hauling ass, but time was on my side and there was no need to rush. I went through Hanover at 3am, and a slower truck in front of me, clear road ahead, made me put foot and pass. As I was next to the slower truck, it suddenly started veering into my lane, obviously the driver asleep.
So I nailed the airhorns, and the guy jerked his truck back into his lane, and I passed safely. The first thought that went through my mind was that at that time of the night, driving with a high powered truck so much faster than normal trucks, overtaking was going to be inevitable. And I wasn't going to take the chance, not with what just went down. 20km other side of Hanover was a layby opposite side of the road. I decided to pull over, and let the graveyard shift pass, en laat die bliksems that wants to kill themselves, do so in their own time and place.
I will never ever forget what happened next. I parked in the layby, let her idle to cool that big turbo down, and I got out to take a leak. I was standing next to the front drivers, merrily pissing shapes on a concrete calvert about 2 metres away(I was young then, no way I can piss past my shadow now) and I hear this rumbling. The truck I passed earlier came over the rise. Completely on the wrong side of the road, the driver met sy groottoon oppie main jet, fullbore and like in slowmo replay, I saw the front tyre kick up dust...... and I ran. Blindly, out in front of the idling Pete...... and then the BANG!
He hit the calvert, and as I looked over my shoulder his headlights were higher than the top of my fridge. He did not hit my truck, but bouncing through the calvert, he lost his whole load of steel plate. Slicing through the proud Pete, vaporizing aluminium and velour. It cut the cab in half. Plates were later found in the engine compartment. The Pete was a write off. When the culprit hit the ground, he was obviously wide awake, and he hit the brakes...... hard, jack-kniving and when it shuddered to a halt, I was a mere metre ahead and a tyre that burst at that instant, flattened me.
I got up later, and the carnage ripped a piece from my heart. The fact that I nearly saw my ass, never occurred to me. The Pete was dead....
I will never forget.
Postage will be R40 in the RSA or come fetch it in Benoni.
