‘A real truck driver’s truck’: The 100th anniversary Kenworth W900L Limited Edition

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Updated Apr 23, 2023
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With Kenworth celebrating its 100th anniversary throughout 2023, the company had on display at the Mid-America Trucking Show the anniversary edition of the iconic W900L.

As of the end of March when MATS was held in Louisville, Kentucky, Kenworth had built about 130 of the 900 limited-run W9s that will only be built this year.

Kenworth badgeWith the 100th anniversary W900L came four new colors, three of which can be seen here: Century Black, Century Red and Century Gold. The other color, Century Platinum, is also available.As Kyle Kimball, Kenworth’s assistant director of marketing, explains in the video up top, the truck on display at the show was No. 1 of 900 and boasted an 86-inch Studio Sleeper. Kimball said all of the W900L Limited Edition trucks that will be built this year will be customized for the buyer, like most W9s, but the special-edition rig features a number of unique touches.

The first thing most people will notice on the truck is the custom paint scheme, which features three of the company’s four new colors that celebrate its centenary -- Century Black, which has a red sparkle to it; Century Red; and Century Gold. The fourth new color for the special-edition trucks is Century Platinum.

Kenworth W900L Limited Edition numbered badgeEach Kenworth W900L Limited Edition features a numbered badge on the passenger-side dash signifying which of the 900 special-edition trucks it is. 001 of 900 is featured in the video up top.The trucks also feature several “Kenworth 100” badges and logos throughout, including on the sleeper badge and etched into the exhaust shield on the exterior.

Inside the trucks, the Kenworth 100 logo can be found in the sleeper, on the seats, on the door thresholds and more. Another unique feature is the mostly black interior, as the majority of W900s have gray interior, Kimball noted. Additionally, each W900L Limited Edition will feature a numbered badge on the passenger-side dash indicating which truck of the 900 it is, as shown above for this unit.

Under the hood, the special-edition W900L sports the Cummins X15 with an available 18-speed manual transmission -- “A real truck driver’s truck,” Kimball said.

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Sleeper of the W900L Limited EditionModels of the 100th anniversary W900 equipped with sleepers feature the Kenworth 100 logo on the back of the sleeper. All of the W900L Limited Edition trucks are equipped with a unique black interior.The W900L Limited Edition is available with an 86-inch Studio Sleeper, a 72-inch Flat Top sleeper and an Extended Day Cab configuration.

In addition to the W900L Limited Edition, Kenworth is also building a number of T680 Signature Edition trucks that will also boast special interior and exterior features to signify the milestone on what is the company’s flagship fleet-spec unit.

[Related: Kenworth celebrating 100th anniversary with limited-edition W900, much more]


Catch plenty more views of the special-edition rig in the video up top. For custom-equipment features delivered to your email inbox, subscribe to Overdrive's weekly Custom Rigs newsletter via this link.

Transcript

Kyle Kimball: Here we are at Mid-America Truck Show 2023. My name's Kyle Kimball, Assistant Director of Marketing at Kenworth Truck Company. Super excited to be celebrating our 100th year anniversary. Since 1923, we've been in business as Kenworth, when Kent and Worthington got together purchasing Gersix.

Right now, I'm really excited to show you guys number 1 of 900 of our W900 Special Edition trucks, Limited Edition, that we've got for this year only. This is number 1 of 900, so there's a bunch of Kenworth 100 events and things that we've got going on this year. This is one of our first shows that we're able to show this truck off. We've built about 130 of them now. Today we'll be building our... As of this point, by the end of the year, we'll have 900 built.

This one in particular is an 86-inch studio sleeper. Some key features and key things that we've got on the W9L limited edition, so we've got a new word mark on the hood. Coming down on the side over here, we've got a new Kenworth 100 logo down on the sleeper where the Studio Sleeper logo used to be. We've also got up on the exhaust. We've got the Kenworth 100 cutaway with a backing to it as well.

Looking at the interior, we've got Kenworth 100 logoing throughout. It's a black interior with the silver, with a brushed silver hard surfaces on it, red piping on the seats. We have a Kenworth 100 logo on the back of the sleeper, and then this particular one being a studio sleeper, has the couch in the back. We also have this available in a 72-inch flat top sleeper. And then we also, this is available in an extended day cab for some more of those vocational applications too.

The other thing that's pretty cool on the outside of this truck is we've got a bit more of a drop sun visor on it that has a Kenworth 100 logo etched into it. But other than that, the thing that really pops out and really grabs people's attention on this truck is the custom paint scheme. We have four new Century colors. We've got a Century black, which is a black with a red sparkle in it. We've got a Century red, Century gold, and Century platinum. So, three of those colors are all on this truck. The main color is a Century black. There's the red stripe, which is Century red, and then the Century gold stripe as well.

This new paint scheme is specific to the Kenworth 100 Special Edition, but obviously we'll paint these trucks whatever you want. They're all custom-built and just like every other W9L we build, this one is custom as well.

The other one last thing that I'll point out, these are the new stylized wheels for Kenworth 100. They have kind of a cool little cutout in the bottom here that has that seven spoke look to it, but a little bit different than the square or rectangular cutout. This particular truck, just like every other W9L, has a Cummins X15 engine in it, and just like a lot of majority of these trucks that's got an 18 speed manual, so a real truck driver's truck.