Overdrive‘s Rearview series is a new recurring monthly feature taking a historical look at the trucking industry through the lens of archived editions of Overdrive.
One of the biggest repeat winners in Pride & Polish’s early years was Darian Stephens, who showed a bevy of trucks in the 1990s and early 2000s. His 1995 Freightliner Classic XL, shown here, won Best of Show, Bobtail, at the 1998 Mid-America Trucking Show.Workhorses increasingly became show horses in the late 1980s and early 1990s, with style-minded owner-operators turning to aftermarket lights, chrome, graphics, paint and more to convert their rigs into things of beauty.
Overdrive began covering the trend and started the first major truck beauty show, Overdrive’s Pride & Polish, in 1991. It’s since expanded into a nationwide circuit, giving proud owner-operators the chance to put their custom equipment on display for thousands of fellow truckers and their families.
That expansion continued in 2011 with the introduction of the Pride & Polish National Championship. It crowns the nation’s best-looking working and limited-mileage bobtails and combination trucks in an annual competition. See the Custom Rigs section starting on page 56 for coverage of last month’s event at the Great American Trucking Show.
In recent years, Overdrive has built a catalog of more than 100 videos of the country’s top custom rigs at youtube.com/OverdriveMag:
Overdrive’s Custom Rigs was distributed quarterly to chrome shops and truck stops from 2008 to 2012. Overdrive then reabsorbed the magazine, making it a monthly section in each issue.
Overdrive’s May 1997 cover highlighted that year’s Mid-America Trucking Show Pride & Polish event.
