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Scenes of Chrome & Class
October 26, 2011
| by: Todd Dills
That’s David Holbrook’s 1986 Peterbilt 359, winner of both Working Bobtail and People’s Choice awards in the second annual Chrome & Class Truck Show, held at the Rush Truck Center location in Smyrna, Tenn., on I-24 just southeast of Nashville. It was a much expanded show this year, with near double the number of entered show trucks and a lively crowd on Friday and Saturday. The show, launched as a way to thank customers of the Peterbilt dealer location for their support, is gaining legs.
Among personal highlights were an unfinished old cabover Bobby Whittenburg brought down from Crossville, Tenn. — the Chevy Titan 90 (pictured) is powered by a V12 Detroit 12V71 and, Whittenburg says, was sold originally by Reeder Chevrolet in Knoxville, which he remembers well. “My dad was buying dump trucks from them” in the 1970s, he says. Whittenburg’s out of trucking himself, these days, and with any luck will find the time and money to treat the Titan 90 like she should be. “I don’t know how far I can go with it,” he says.
And have you met the “World’s Largest Truck?” Bryan Dax’s “Red Giant,” a modified 1990 Diamond Reo with a monster 430-inch wheelbase, for decades was the owner-operator’s Wisconsin cheese hauler — Overdrive featured Dax and the truck in an issue dating back to 1991. Dax has turned the truck into an advertising business with Reo Mobile Media. Mammoth digital displays grace both sides of the sleeper, as you can see in photos below. He’s planning a truck stop tour for the coming year. Stay tuned for more. Search “Red 
Giant in Action” on YouTube for a brief video of the truck in action.
Finally, a round-up of winners from the truck show follows, with pictures in the gallery at bottom. Enjoy.
2011 Chrome & Class Truck Show results
People’s Choice
David Holbrook’s 1986 Peterbilt 359
Working Combo
1st: Ted Bowers’ 2005 Peterbilt 379
2nd: Todd Modderman’s 2000 Peterbilt 379
3rd: Jackie Lovins’ 1998 Peterbilt 379
Antique Combo
1st: Terry Curry’s 1971 Peterbilt 359
2nd: Mike Rickard’s 1985 International 9670
3rd: Stanley Walls’ 1952 Peterbilt 350
Working Bobtail
1st: David Holbrook’s 1986 Peterbilt 359
2nd: John Bailey’s 1985 Peterbilt 359
3rd: Bert Dyer’s 1979 Kenworth W900
Antique Bobtail
1st: Mark Rickard’s 1979 International 4070B
2nd: Clifford & Trent Walker’s 1970 Peterbilt 351
3rd: Jerry Howard’s 1949 Pete 350
Show Class Bobtail
1st: Gene McKinney’s 2000 Pete 379
2nd: Frank K.’s 1994 Pete 379
3rd: Tobby Donalson’s 1959 Pete 351
Great article Todd….That’s what I call some good lookin ‘Iron’. Thanks for sharing.
Thanks, Bandit! Good lookin iron indeed. And until this show I don’t think I knew there was such a thing as a Chevrolet cabover. Seems the GMCs and Fords were much more common among the big trucks in those days, eh?
Yep, There was the Chevy Titan and the GMC Astro. Both normally had either a 238hp or 318hp Detroit in them. Ah, the memories….hahaha.
[...] to the much-expanded Chrome & Class Show Oct. 21-22 at Rush Truck Center in Smyrna, Tenn., and he’s added bunches of photos and documented the show‘s second year in his Channel 19 blog on [...]
David Holbrook truck is nice and he live at the end off my street and he done all the work himself even extended the frame. Super nice guy .
Thanks for sharing, Tony. I didn’t get the opportunity to talk to David when I was out at the show. Chance you might send him my email and tell him to get in touch sometime? It’s tdills@rrpub.com. Or here’s my phone number (I’m based in Nashville): 205-907-2481.
[...] And imagine the potential of your owner-operator biz logo popping from a trailer or, hey, that of an ad client. It is possible, at the least, to sell visible space on your trailer. Bryan Dax is proving it as we speak. [...]
[...] faces. One belonged to Bobby Whittenburg, owner of the Chevy Titan cabover I made note of after last October’s Chrome & Class event at Rush Truck Centers in Nashville. Since the show, he’s located two other Titan 90s with V12 engines like his own, he says [...]
[...] both the owner-operator and company driver of the year and making a stop to see Bryan Dax’s Diamond Reo Red Giant up close. Keep an eye on my Twitter feed and/or Facebook page for photos and updates from the road. [...]
[...] as I prepared to head off to Two Rivers, Wis., this morning to visit with him. Dax is owner of the 1990 Diamond Reo “Red Giant” truck I saw briefly in Nashville last year – Dax has turned the Reo in a mobile marketing vehicle, [...]
[...] I visited with Dax this past week (you may recall his rig from my coverage of the Nashville Chrome & Class show last year) at the tail end of my tour through Minnesota and Wisconsin doing some reporting, his [...]
[...] Meet some of the ATHS Music City and other regional chapter members here. Check out some of those trucks I was talking about here. [...]