Can't you see yourself behind the wheel of this beast and terrorizing the next track day? | The other day we received a message from our old friend Mike Ryan: “The time has come to move on from truck racing and see what else life has to offer and from here, it is looking interesting, so I am anxious to jump in and as much as it hurts to part with it, I need to sell the Freightliner Pikes Peak Special to help fund my new driver training program.”Whoa, what? Freightliner Pikes Peak Special. Yup, it’s that Mike Ryan, owner/driver of the first Class 8 truck to compete in the famed Mt. Washington Hillclimb in New Hampshire and went on to established the truck record on that New England peak. The truck also holds the current class record on Pikes Peak. 
Mike Ryan in serious preparations to take on the 7.6-mile Mt. Washington Hill Climb | Pikes Peak, to the few of you not familiar with the epic event is also known as “The Race to the Clouds,” held just outside of Colorado Springs, Colorado, and is the second oldest motorsports event in the U.S. after the Indianapolis 500. The course runs 12.46 miles through 156 turns, climbing nearly one mile in elevation to reach the 14,110-foot summit of Pikes Peak.The truck itself has as fascinating a history as you’ll find with any race vehicle. It started life as the Sterling Pikes Peak tandem rear axle race truck. Freightliner’s parent company Daimler had purchased Ford’s big truck line in 1997 and rebranded the trucks as Sterling. Freightliner engineers, working in their off hours, engineered the chassis utilizing the company’s sophisticated design software and then built it in their “skunkworks” from late 1999 into early 2000. 
Mike says he's the first driver to drift a semi truck "intentionally". Love that disclaimer! | You’re probably well aware that COE (cab over engine) truck racing is popular in Europe, South America, Australia, and New Zealand. For the 2000 Pikes Peak competition, four-time New Zealand Class B truck racer Shane Chapman was selected to guide the Freightliner up the hill, finishing a highly-respectable second in class.In 2001, driving chores of the Sterling were assigned to Molly Morter-Currie, who brought with her a CORR Class Championship, while Mike raced his Freightliner. Molly took home a second place finish in the tandem-axel division of the Big Rig class. Not only was Morter the first female to race a big rig up the mountain, she received the prestigious 'Rookie of the Year' award. In a strange turn of events the truck spent the new few years at the Madras, Oregon Proving Grounds and then in a Freightliner warehouse in Portland. 
The wrecker crew winches Mike's truck out of the trees at the 2014 Pikes Peak Hill Climb | Then Freightliner introduced their Cascadia model in 2008 and Mike decided to park his Mercedes powered Freightliner Century Class truck and convert the long-serving Sterling to a Detroit Diesel-powered Cascadia race truck that he’s raced and drifted (yes, drifted) from 2008-2016 In 2014, Mike had an “oh (you know what)" experience when the truck fell off the road at Pike’s Peak. As a result, the truck received a thorough rebuild where he repainted the aluminum framerails, for which Mike has spares, replaced 90% of the fasteners, turned the cross members into water tanks for the brake cooling system, installed a new water-methanol injection system, new turbo system, completely new ZF based independent front suspension, 17” Bendix vented rotor air disc brakes, new custom-built Fluidyne radiator and intercooler, freshly rebuilt custom King Shocks, new hood, bumper, windshield, paint, and about 50 other items. 
When you're turbocharging a massive diesel engine you need massive pipes | The Detroit Diesel engine currently has less than 100 break in, practice, and race miles on the it and the chassis has less than 200 miles on it since the rebuild. It is a 14-liter DDEC 5 marine based Detroit Diesel engine with a triple compounding turbo system, drawing through K&N filters, and producing approximately 2,400 HP and just north of 4,000 foot pounds of torque. It is mated to an exotic (and expensive) ZF factory built custom European Super Truck Series, 5-speed sequential “Ecomat” automatic and the truck comes with fresh a rebuilt spare. The rig roles on Accuride 22.5 x 9.25 powder coated alloy wheels, with custom compounded Michelin racing tires built on truck cases with road racing rain compound tread for both front and rear tires and it comes with spares.With 14 class wins and 7 records in 18 years we find it hard that Mike would have trouble finding a buyer for this thing. |
