In this week's edition of Overdrive Radio, we’re looking back at the long run of the W900 model from the Kenworth Truck Company. The W900's coming sunset has been among the biggest equipment news of the year -- uncovered ahead of the Mid-America Trucking Show, where the company unveiled the launch of the W900 Legacy Edition special series to close out the model's run. Kenworth plan to build a final 1,000 units of the W900 for customers through next year.
On the podcast this week we're running through details of the Legacy Edition, likewise delving into the history surrounding the W900, with two Kenworth reps:
- Kyle Kimball, Kenworth director of marketing
- Jamin Swazo, company marketing communications director
[Related: First of the last of the Kenworth W900s: Video walkaround with Legacy Edition]
The model itself certainly built a big legacy with untold numbers of truck owners through well more than a half-century run of production since its 1963 introduction.
In fact, according to Swazo, the company’s not aware of any uninterrupted "longer runs out there in any automotive history for a single model," he said.
Dive in with Kimball and Swazo in the podcast, answering the question on the mind of any prospective owner of one of the final production units of Kenworth Legacy Edition -- or a new standard W900, still available itself for order through … well, take a listen:
Also in the podcast: Hear Kimball and Swazo's answers to another pressing question I've heard from a few Kenworth fans -- whether they'd yet seen anyone add old-style can external breathers to a W990. (Have you? Send any tips my way for sure.) Both also detailed their outlook for the W990 as a platform for custom-equipment builders and other owners, and efforts to showcase the successor model at the Mid-America Trucking Show. There, Kenworth showcased a vintage W900A and the MHC Kenworth Joplin, Missouri, location's custom treatment of the W990 pictured below.
The photo here from the Kenworth booth at MATS shows in the foreground the a custom 1982 Kenworth W900A owned by an MHC customer. It's outfitted with the classic Cape Cod paint scheme, as is the W990 MHC built special for the show in the background. Kenworth
Another picture Kenworth shared of the MHC W990. Kenworth
[Related: Truck-show rarity: Livestock hauler's custom Kenworth W990]
Are you the owner of a W900? Add it to Overdrive's Reader Rigs gallery via this link. Pictured above are a bevy of readers' trucks among other W900s, including the Kenworth 100th-anniversary edition and others.
