Rewind 2013: The Best Barn Find Ever!

In-depth

24 June

Prologue: I was at a truck show somewhere now forgotten when I came across Laurie Ceppa standing in front of an old innocuous KW cab over. I’m glad that I stopped to have a chat.

…….

A V12, GM powered, cab over Kenworth is a rare beast and Laurie Ceppa, from Werribee in Victoria owns one. A 1975 model, Laurie found it sitting idle in a hay shed in the middle of New South Wales.

How do blokes find these trucks in the middle of nowhere?

"It was just a bit of dumb luck, really. I was just talking V12's to this bloke one day – I'd always liked them and had aspirations of owning one someday – and he knew where this one was. I've got three or four cab over Kenworths and I'd toyed around with the idea of repowering one with a V12. When this came up it was easier to buy the whole kit and caboodle.

"There's not too many around, particularly sitting underneath a cab over. There were only six made here in Australia, out of Bayswater. They put out 435 hp which was a lot of horsepower in those days. Nothing had that sort of power back then unless you had a KT. It would have been about 1973 or 1974 that the two McPhee ones were built and they're not around anymore. Nick Travolous had one and Simmons Transport had three. I know one of the McPhee’s got burnt out, so that's gone to God. The other one is still around but it's not 12 anymore. I don't know if the Simmons ones are still in existence.”

**A far cry from today’s electronic wizardry**

"Mine's as rough as guts, but I thought I might just leave it as it is. It's a weather-beaten old truck. Its warts and all. You can make them look beautiful given time and money but you can't reproduce 2 or 3 or 4 million miles and the history that conveys. I was considering doing it up, but the way she is has just grown on me and I'll probably leave her history exposed for all to see and consider.

"It's got primary producer rego on it, as it did when I bought it and it's still registered, but I don't use it as a working truck. I've been toying with the idea of putting commercial plates on it and maybe using it for myself or maybe I'll just leave it as a club truck.

"With this one of mine – I have to be honest with you – I don't reckon it's an original 12. I think it was repowered a long time ago when 12's were still the in-thing. If you look around for a cab-over with a V12 in it, you'll be looking for a long time."

Laurie has been driving trucks since 1968.

"These were the sort of trucks that were around when I started driving. I drove a lot of GM powered equipment. Back then, 9 out of 10 Kenworths sold had GM's in them – they were very popular. You'd get the odd Cummins Power which became more popular 10 years after I began driving. Then Caterpillar came a bit later on. They weren't so popular at first but over time they became more reliable and ended up being the ant’s pants.

"I've spent my whole life driving. I'm probably not far off giving it away. I've been an owner driver since 1973 when I was 23 and owned my own trucks ever since. I made my own fate and my own future and I don't regret a moment of it. For the first seven years or so I only had one truck and since then I've had two or three - sometimes four as work required. When I think back, it was long hard road but now that it's mostly behind me I'm not sorry. If you look at any owner driver, most of them have worked hard enough to be millionaires. But the nature of the industry doesn't allow that in most cases. It's not usually that kind to you financially."

Back to the V12.

"It is only an old beast. It's nothing to look at, but boy! I'll start it up and you listen to the sound. It's not something you'll hear today."

He was right. The V12 purrs - or more accurately, growls like a tiger. This is one sweet engine. Behind the V12 is a 36,000 L tanker. Built in 1968 it is considerably older than the Kenworth. Laurie still uses the tanker for carting water.

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