Laden with chrome and shining like King Arthur's sword, Excalibur, Paul Scase's 1994 Peterbilt 379 extended hood conventional would turn heads anywhere. In his native Great Britain, it stops traffic in its tracks.
The Peterbilt's magnificent presence is all the more remarkable because it isn't a working truck nor even legal to haul loads in the United Kingdom. Instead, it is the realization of a lifelong passion.
Scase, a 42-year-old building inspector, has spent much of his free time and spare change customizing the classy chassis simply for the love of it. It's a love that transcends languages and national borders. Scase and his Peterbilt are hits at auto and truck shows throughout Europe. With its magnificently appointed sleeper, gleaming stainless steel and chrome accents, and hundreds of lights, this large car has become Scase's castle.
Like so many American lads, Scase grew up around "lorries," as many British call trucks. His father owned a couple of "tippers," or dump trucks, and the boy loved riding with his dad and helping clean the trucks. Scase also devoured trucking magazines and was fascinated by the much larger, fancier U.S. rigs. He dreamed of owning one.
"When I was 20, I took my first holiday abroad, to the International Trucking Show which was then held in California," Scase says. While there, he met Fred Wolfe Jr., a driver for United Van Lines in Long Island, N.Y., who was headed east with a load of furniture. Scase rearranged his flight home so he could depart from New York, and rode across country with his new friend.
"I helped him load and unload, and really, it was much more of a benefit for me than for him. He had a Kenworth Aerodyne cabover. This was in 1980 and it was a nice, sharp truck for the time." Scase returned to the U.S. several years later and spent five weeks with Wolfe hauling loads all over the country.
Scase recalls deciding in 1979 that he had to own a Peterbilt. That meant scrimping and saving every spare shilling. He sold his car and bought a cheaper one that cost less to maintain. He didn't smoke or drink, and he lived with his parents. Meanwhile, he earned a commercial license and dreamed and planned.
"When I was in the U.S. in 1980, the nicest truck at ITS was a Peterbilt owned by Dave Hodgeman, who owns Southern Pride. It had a 66-inch Double Eagle Sleeper, which was a big sleeper at that time. I fell in love with the Double Eagle sleepers. To me, that was the mark of a classy truck."
Scase wrote Ray Miller, Double Eagle's president, and asked for brochures and advice. "I told him about my plans, and basically he said, 'Yeah, sure,' but he sent photos and drawings of other drivers' sleepers. I read a lot of trucking magazines, wrote to companies, dreamed about what I wanted, and played around with photos trying to visualize what my ideal truck would look like. The postman with his brochures and letters was my lifeline," Scase says.
By the early 1990s, he had saved about $75,000, enough to start shopping. He says he wrote six Peterbilt dealerships telling them he wanted to import a Pete into England, but none replied. Finally, he contacted M&R Truck Sales, Fort Wayne, Ind., who took his dream seriously. Scase met owner Mike Mounsey and salesman Tim Speshyock at the 1994 Mid-America Trucking Show.
"They were enthusiastic and pleased that someone from England would consider buying a truck. They bought the truck from Peterbilt of Indianapolis, and the only profit they made on the sale was enough for two airplane tickets to England to see the truck when it was finished." (Scase entered his first truck show six months after it arrived in England, and Mounsey and Speshyock were there to applaud. Scase still sends them photos and copies of European magazines in which the truck is featured.)
After taking delivery, Scase drove the tractor to Double Eagle in Shipshewana, Ind., and then flew home. Later, after it was fitted with a sleeper, he came back to the U.S., drove to Baltimore and put the truck on a ship to Liverpool, England.
It arrived in January 1995 and, he says, "I've spent pretty much every evening and weekend working on it. I get a lot of enjoyment making things. A lot of the items on the truck are homemade, including the stainless steel accessories.
"I try to do things that are unique, that you won't even see in the U.S," Scase says. For instance, he stripped the engine, rubbed it down by hand, and repainted it red. He spent weeks building a stainless steel shell around the radiator and a bulkhead between the engine compartment and the cab.
Even doing a lot of the work himself, Scase admits it costs a lot to keep up the rig, much less run it. "I can't just take it out and tool around. My payments are $750 a month, insurance is $225 a month, and the garage where I keep it costs $400 a month," he says. "I do a lot of auto and truck shows, and the organizers often pay me to bring the truck because it is so unusual." He also does charity events and even delivered Father Christmas in local holiday celebrations.
Fortunately, Scase doesn't need a special permit to run the Pete for fun — in fact, it's registered as a motor home-camper. "This also helps hold down my road taxes. It would be about $6,000 a year if I worked the truck, but for a motor home, it's just $225." Now that's a bit of all right.
