A truck is a motor vehicle for transporting goods. The word "truck" comes from the Greek "trochos", meaning "wheel". In America, the big wheels of wagons were called trucks. When the petrol engine driven trucks came into fashion, these were called "motortrucks". Slowly the word motor in front of truck disappeared.
Now this is what we call a real truck. It might not wear the Ram, Ford, or Chevrolet badge, but it’s just as good. The monster looking Bolero is a favorite of police, military, and some citizens who feel the need to be big and tall on the public roads, similar to driving a Hummer in the United States.
Now that the truck has been around 10 years, Mahindra are releasing a 2011 version truck with all the goodies that one might need to tame the Indian wilderness, such as a wicked light bar, a snorkel, tow loops, and a pick-axe.
According to the automaker, the Bolero is the best selling truck in India. It sold around 70,554 units year, which is quite a remarkable feat. This is certainly one of those vehicles that you either love or hate. Arnold Schwarzenegger types will love it, while green folk will believe it to be the anti-Christ. Either way, it sure does look neat.
In our world, we don’t really give particular importance to the whole Jesse James/Sandra Bullock saga; we leave that to the tabloid pages. See, when it comes down to it, we don’t really care about the whole cheating scandal the West Coast Chopper-builder was recently involved in. What we do care about is the fact that James recently purchased a brand-spankin’ new Hennessey VelociRaptor 575 complete with the tune-up kit that the TV star reportedly paid somewhere around $11,000 to bang up on his new truck.
There’s also a video of James’ new monster pick-up being given a dyno test by the folks at Hennessey where the supercharged monster produced 496 horsepower and about 473 lb/ft of torque. You want to hear the only kind of sound that’s music to the ears of all auto enthusiasts?
Check out the video and amp up the volume. That is, if you can handle the sound of a VelociRaptor 575 in the middle of a dyno test.
When the Ford F-150 Velociraptor 600 by Hennessey first popped up on our screen, a lot of people commented on how this tuning package was just what the F150 needed. Luxury tuning kits are not for a beast of a machine like this one and prepping this Velociraptor for a day of off-roading was just what the people wanted to see. Thankfully, Hennessey was on the right track because they have released a video of their Velociraptor in its natural habitat: right smack in the middle of a whole lot of dirt. This is the perfect place for the car to show the things it is capable of.
The VelociRaptor 600 is an F150 powered by a tuned-up 6.2-liter V8 Raptor that is reported to produce over 605 HP and 622 lb/ft of torque. These numbers help the car to sprint from 0 to 60 mph in an amazing 5 seconds. The truck also gets a twin-turbo system with matching intercoolers and a stainless-steel exhaust, an upgraded fuel system and boost controller.
For those who can’t handle this amount of power, Hennessey is also offering a 500 version that gets a 5.4 Liter power plant with 501 HP and 520 lb-ft of torque.
Land speed records are usually set by exotic sports cars that have no problem setting 200 mph without breaking a sweat. The last thing - or at least vehicle - people will associate with speed records are trucks. Big-bodied, mammoth trucks that are less about speed than they are about power.
Try telling that to Boije Overbrink, who was determined to make sure that he went down as driving the fastest semi-truck in all the world. Easier said than done, right? Apparently, not for Mr. Overbrink. Using a specially-built Volvo semi and bringing it to Hultsfred Airport in Sweden, the 59-year old, who also happened to be celebrating his birthday on that very same day, clocked in an average speed of 81.32 mph for 500 meters and 103.58 mph for an entire kilometer.
Taking into account the slow acceleration of trucks that size, speed runs for this category are only measured on the average time it clocks over an entire course. Taking all that into consideration, the truck clocked in a speed of over 155 mph over an entire course.
Relative to the speed set by high-powered sports cars, 155 mph may not be all that impressive, but when you’re talking about a semi-truck with all that sheet metal, 155 mph is by far both impressive and scary at the same time.
The Nissan pickup has never sold all that well here in the United States, but with tough competition from Ford and Chevrolet, it’s easy to see why that is. Nissan has an all-new Titan ready for 2014, but they might have a few changes in store for next year.
The 2011 Titan and Frontier get all-new trim level names, including S, SV, and SL. There will also be 4x4 badging on the truck if the buyer gets the four-wheel drive version. In the comfort department, captain’s chairs will be fitted as standard on the top-level SL trim. The 5.6-liter 317-horsepower V8 will remain.
The trim-level name swap will be on the Frontier as well, but the PRO-4X model will carry over on both trucks. The smaller pickup loses its six-speed manual on the long wheelbase SL King Cab and SV Crew Cab.
Luckily, there is still a six-speed manual available on the lower S trim level and the PRO-4X short wheelbases. The SV adds the Luxury Package and you can even get LATCH child safety seats.
The new Titan for 2011 goes on sale in August and the new six-cylinder Frontier will follow it in September, while four-cylinder Frontiers will go on sale in October.
With the launch of the all-new 2011 Jeep Grand Cherokee upcoming, Jeep might already be looking further into the future. The company hasn’t offered a pickup truck in North America since 1992, but they are currently debating the idea.
Mike Manley, president and CEO of Jeep expressed interest in a compact and midsize truck in an interview with PickupTrucks.com.
“That’s a segment that I’m very curious about. I know it’s had a rough time here in the U.S., but globally it still seems to be an important sector.”
“I know there’s a lot of elasticity in the Jeep brand globally, so we’re not limiting our search for new-vehicle opportunities or new markets,” Manley said.
Manley seemed very open about the idea of competing with the likes of the Ford Ranger and Toyota Tacoma.
Yet, this isn’t the first time that trucks have been brought up by Jeep. Remember the Jeep Gladiator concept from 2005. When the press got their hands on it, the truck got nothing, but rave reviews.
Jeep won’t have it easy though. Chinese auto manufacturer Mahindra is already preparing a truck launch in the United States and, with rising gas prices, trucks might not be the best area to explore.
In any case, don’t expect any further comment from Jeep, just keep hoping that something will come along very soon.
Racing with monster trucks on a wet and muddy truck isn’t exactly the safest thing to be racing on, but for some people, it’s the perfect recipe for having a good time. That is, until something like this happens to one of the participants.
The driver of this particular truck was in the middle of his run and was - given the circumstances - running smoothly despite all the splashing mud it was running over. That’s when all hell began to break loose. In the middle of his run, the truck unexpectedly hit a deep hole that was being hidden by the excessive amounts of water and mud on the track. As soon as he hit the hole, his truck lurches forward and fell on its side pinning the driver, who, idiotically, wasn’t wearing his seat belt.
Race officials immediately scrambled to assist the driver who miraculously escaped being squashed like a bug by the truck. We’re not the type to blast people for enjoying the things they love to do provided, of course, that they know where their limits are. It is apparent that this guy was so way in over his head that his limits were obviously not realized. Or maybe he just needs to wear his seat belt next time.
Either way, he’s lucky to be alive after coming this close to getting pinned under a two-ton truck.
Over the course of our years covering the auto industry, we’ve seen cars do some amazing things. From burnouts to drifts to long distance jumps, and even those crazy folks doing back flips with their cars, there’s not a shortage of those images that are etched in our memories.
But up until now, we’ve never seen anything quite like this.
To be fair, this stunt has been done before in the past, albeit unsuccessfully. The most famous example, of course, is our favorite daredevil Travis Pastrana, who last year tried to do a back flip while riding a monster truck. Pastrana, however, wasn’t able to accomplish the feat, which then of course leads us to Cam McQueen trying to perform the same trick at a recent Monster truck rally.
This video shows McQueen beginning his attempt in making his Monster Truck do a back flip and, unbelievably, – the man actually does it! Incredible. Amazing. Indescribable.
It’s only 18 seconds long, but in those 18 precious ticks, prepare for your jaws to drop because you’re going to see something you’ve never seen before.
The latest in military auto technology has arrived, or, as a better description, has rolled out into the battlefield. Indigen Armor, makers of armored vehicles known for their stout sturdiness, recently unveiled their latest masterpiece, the Non-Standard Tactical Truck, or NSTT, for short.
Described by Indigen Armor as an "ideal, lightweight alternative to heavy legacy vehicles," the armor-encased NSTT comes with four-wheel drive, scalable armor packages as well as a monster 6.0-liter turbo-diesel engine. These features make it an ideal vehicle to use in those high-hostility areas of conflict like urban streets, deserts, woodlands, jungles, and, if the situation calls for it, mountains and arctic terrains.
Indigen Armor left a lot of the specifications of the NSTT under wraps, only leaving us with this pretty cool video of the car being tested. That will probably be the only time we’d be psyched about getting into a car while an AK-47 tries to gun us down.
In the face of seemingly insormountable danger, the power of the human spirit to survive shines through, giving the individual the presence of mind to find ways of getting out of harm’s way
Truck driver Randy Pierce found that out the hard way after he managed - barely - to escape the burning truck he was driving after he got into an accident when the truck he was driving, which was carrying about 20 tons of frozen chicken, got cut off by a dump truck before the trailer crashed, slicing open the fuel tank in the process.
With a split open tank, it didn’t take long for the truck to be engulfed in flames, which, naturally, made things worse for Pierce. If the fire wasn’t enough to deal with, Pierce also had to worry about getting out of the truck’s cab, which was perilously dangling from the side of the bridge.
Fortunately, the driver still had his wits about him despite a pretty devastating crash. Pierce managed to get safely back to hard surface after climbing out of the passenger side of the burning truck before finding safety in the form of the bridge.
In times like this, you have to wonder how these people can think clearly given the cards that they’re dealt with. Fortunately for Randy Pierce, he was calm enough to work his way out of his predicament.
