"I'm into cars from the '20s and '30s," says Tommy Opliger of McAdenville, N.C. "Cars they built back then have character. They're huge! You just look at them and can't imagine what it would be like to drive them on a daily basis."

Actually, Opliger and his wife, Jane, just plain love older cars, such as the 1993 Ford Mustang and 1957 Chevrolet Bel-Air shown here. The rest of their collection includes a '38 Dodge sedan, two '47 Dodge panel trucks, a '50 Mercury, a '52 Chevy pickup, a '40 Willys, and a '55 Ford pickup. They store the cars in five mini-storage double-size garages.

"If I had the money, they would look great, but I'm a truck driver, and I have too many bills to pay to keep them all in show-car shape," he laughs. Show-car shape describes their 1996 Peterbilt 379 called "Hot Rod Pete." Leased to Intercity Lines Inc., they haul show cars, collector cars, exotics, race cars and street rods in enclosed vans.

Intercity Lines offers door-to-door delivery. "Some of these people have cars two miles back in the woods," he chuckles. "We get as close as we can." They run coast to coast with Dixie Belle, their German Shepherd and get home maybe a total of only two months out of a year. So, homestyle comforts are a necessity. The Opligers' 320-inch wheelbase tractor has a 470-hp Detroit Diesel Series 60, 3.90 rears, Eaton Super 10, 10-inch stacks, leather air-ride seats and 139 eight-diode TruckLite lights. The 132-inch Indiana Custom sleeper has a fridge, microwave, espresso maker, central vacuum, TracVision LM in-motion satellite TV, VCR, and AM/FM/CD stereo.

And while they can't take their classic cars along, they have decorated the tractor with murals of some of their vehicles. "The Mercury is on the driver's side, a Dodge is on the passenger side, and the hood has a pickup. On the back of the sleeper is a farmyard scene, with a bunch of cars." The murals won a Grand Prize in the 1999 DuPont Top Gun paint competition, and score well in truck shows.

"I hope to retire in a few years, then I can restore all my stuff and say, 'Don't bother me, I'm working on my stuff,' and let everybody else drive big trucks up and down the road," he says.