One of the more eye-catching trucks participating at the uphill truck drag races in St. Joseph DeBeauce in Quebec, Canada, has to be Mario Racicot\u2019s 2009 Freightliner Argosy. It grabs your attention in so many ways \u2013 it\u2019s the only cabover on the hill and it has a bright red paint job \u2013 but most of the attention comes from the huge dual exhaust and four intakes nestled between them. This truck not only appeals to the eyes, but when Mario twists the key, the real fun begins with a very familiar sound from the past.<\/p>\nngg_shortcode_0_placeholder\n
Shoe-horned under the cab of this 2009 Freightliner Argosy cabover is a 24V71 Detroit Diesel, which should re-kindle those memories of when the two-stroke screamin\u2019 Detroits were on the highways everywhere. That\u2019s right, 24 cylinders, at 71 inches each, for a total of 1,704 cubic-inches of power and noise under Mario\u2019s right foot. And you can bet, when this \u201cBig Red Machine\u201d is on the track, your eyes and ears will know it!<\/p>\n
Mario and his mechanic Alain Tessier started with a 2009 Argosy glider kit, and two years later this beautiful beast emerged from the garage, ready for work and play, blowing minds wherever it went. When asked why he built this truck, Mario\u2019s answer was quick and to the point: \u201cI had several trucks and none of them had enough power, but that\u2019s not the case with this one.\u201d The engine, of 1995 vintage, was removed from a 135-foot boat \u2013 Mario scored two of them, so he could have some spare parts, if needed.<\/p>\n
Fed by four superchargers and four turbochargers, nearly 2,000 horsepower is funneled through a 6-speed Allison automatic transmission, borrowed from an off-road quarry dump truck, and hits the ground via a set of 46,000-lb. rated rear-ends. Behind the grille, and integrated into the rear cab housing, are five radiators \u2013 two each for the engine and transmission, and one for the engine aftercooler \u2013 all working together to dissipate the heat generated by the monster Detroit, hidden under that doghouse.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe toughest part of this project was making everything fit. Alain and I had to rework a lot of things to do that,\u201d says Mario. One may think this is a race-only truck, but it\u2019s not. Mario\u2019s business is transporting sand and gravel, so there\u2019s usually a 3- or 4-axle dump trailer mated to the 28,000-lb. tractor, delivering the goods wherever needed.<\/p>\n
The craftsmanship and attention to detail throughout this unique vehicle makes it equally at home on the road, at the track or at a show. Those visuals, combined with the unmistakable sound generated by that two-stroke Detroit Diesel power plant from the past, makes this truck a total overload for both the eyes and ears. Photos do not do this \u201cBig Red Machine\u201d justice, so to hear the music for yourself, check out one of the many videos of this truck on YouTube (search for Mario Racicot Freightliner). Enjoy!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
One of the more eye-catching trucks participating at the uphill truck drag races in St. Joseph DeBeauce in Quebec, Canada, has to be Mario Racicot\u2019s 2009 Freightliner Argosy. It grabs your attention in so many ways \u2013 it\u2019s the only cabover on the hill and it has a bright red paint job \u2013 but most<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":37,"featured_media":18707,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-18690","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-special-features"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tenfourmagazine.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18690","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tenfourmagazine.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tenfourmagazine.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tenfourmagazine.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/37"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tenfourmagazine.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18690"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.tenfourmagazine.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18690\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18714,"href":"https:\/\/www.tenfourmagazine.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18690\/revisions\/18714"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tenfourmagazine.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18707"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tenfourmagazine.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18690"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tenfourmagazine.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18690"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tenfourmagazine.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18690"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}