We love big, bonneted, Australian-built prime movers at Trucks at Tracks, but the star of this story is a bit different from the others.

This IVECO Powerstar 7800 is a sentimental truck for us. Why’s that? Well, it was the truck that appeared in our very first cover photo when we launched in July last year (pictured below). It stayed for quite a while, too.

Anyway, while putting together our interview with motorsport transport master Jeff Mercer, he shared a couple of photos of this particular truck from his time at Griffith Corporation. So, figuring that you guys might also want to learn a bit more about it, we hassled Jeff for another chat and he was kind enough to oblige.

We started off by asking what he knew of the history of this truck.

“It was built by IVECO in Australia and it went onto their stand at the Brisbane International Truck Show,” Jeff explained. “They had that Powerstar and a matching IVECO Stralis to go with it. They were displayed on the IVECO stand to promote the new Powerstar 7800 which had only just been released.”

“That truck was parked at an IVECO dealership on display out the front. Mark Griffith eventually took delivery of both the Powerstar and the Stralis,” recalled Jeff. “They were specifically bought to use in transporting race cars due to the fact that because it’s a road train-rated truck, it can’t pull a B-Double. It can only pull a single trailer or a road train.”

According to Jeff, there wasn’t much gear that the big IVECO was lacking.

“It has the new generation Cummins 600 and an 18-speed manual gearbox. It also has quite a large bunk with a flat-screen TV and a fridge. Basically, it’s got the lot and it drives fantastically. If I was chasing a bonneted truck to do long distance work, that’s where I would be looking. I even purchased a red tire pen and did the lettering on the tyres to match and it also had a custom front bumper bar.”

This truck made quite an impression on the Australian motorsport scene when it first rolled through the gates.

“It was a real head-turner,” said Jeff. “When we first started taking it to the track, it was a major drawcard because nobody had one. It was the first of its type in the country and it really stood out in the paddock.”

Another big thanks to Jeff Mercer for his time. If you have a particular truck in the motorsport world that you’d like to know more about, drop us a line on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram. If you prefer to stay away from the socials, you can use our easy contact form.