HOW A WORN OUT YARD TRACK BECAME THE BANDAG BULLET’S TRANSPORTER

Looking back at this twin turbo V8 beast that was as wild as the Bandag Bullet itself

Image: Ron Esau

If we’re going to do a proper Aussie diesel Classics Week, the Bandag Bullet’s custom Kenworth transporter simply has to feature. The Bandag Bullet earned, or perhaps we should say burned, a place in the memories of thousands of Australians all over the country, and this transporter made the show possible.

We had the pleasure of chatting with Frank Gaffiero, the legend behind the Bandag Bullet, back in 2017. During our long conversation, Frank shared the story of the transporter behind the Bandag Bullet juggernaut that started in the early 1980s.

We’ll let him tell you exactly how the Bullet’s Kenworth transporter came to be.

“I approached Bandag and said that we wanted to build a truck to cart the Bullet around and asked if they were interested in sponsoring it,” Frank recalled.

“They said ‘not really’, so I took a couple of pictures of Tyrone Malone’s transporter, changed a few things, went to an artist and got him to draw it the way I wanted it with the Bullet on it. I also got him to colour it like the Bullet with the Bandag colours across it.”

Then, Frank went back to Bandag.

“They looked at it and said ‘yep, we’re with you’. Myself and my brother, Charlie, then bought an old yard horse from TNT. It was an old Kenworth that had done two million kilometres and was just pulling trailers around. It had a V8 71 in it, a torsion bar and a very short wheelbase.

“It was not a wreck, but that was all that it was good for, and because we did a lot of work for them, they gave it to us for two or three grand. That was how we started with the transporter.”

Getting the keys to the old Kenworth was just the beginning. Frank had big plans.

“With Recar’s help, we extended the chassis. They pretty much built the transporter; the whole body of it. Then, we took the engine out and put a Detroit 871 TA in it - twin turbocharged and aftercooled.

“People and businesses helped us out like Sleek-Line, which built the biggest sleeper in Australia in ’85 or ’86. That was finished before the transporter, because it ended up at the Sydney Truck Show. Nelson Exhaust built the exhaust system for us, and Recar painted it.

Image: Ron Esau

“Obviously the truck went like a cut snake and all that you had on it was the Bullet,” said Frank. “In those days, we were over-length and over-width. Now it would all be legal, but you were always on your toes every time you got pulled up. Fortunately, they’d notice what you had on and see that it was not as if you were carting big loads.

“That was the beginning, I suppose.”

Frank quickly put a lot of miles on the custom K100, with the Bullet in high demand around Australia.

“Everybody was ringing you, you didn’t have to ring them,” said Frank, thinking back to the Bullet’s heyday. “If I was going to Perth, I would do a tour. I would do 10, or even 12 Bandag places by the time I got back to Brisbane. I would go to two or three in Perth, Geraldton, Bunbury, Albany, Esperance, Kalgoorlie and on the way, you would do Port Augusta and maybe a couple more somewhere else on the way home. You would be away for about three weeks.”

Soon, there was even more to weaponry to carry. As truck racing grew in Australia during the late eighties and early nineties, Frank and his crew were running the Bandag Bullet and a competitive truck racing team side-by-side. How did he do it?

“Pretty much, wherever the truck racing was, the Bullet went. At first, when we had the two trucks, we didn’t transport the Bullet to wherever we were racing. It was just the race truck. Then, I got a sponsor in Adelaide and with a bit of help from him and other people that put in, we built this aluminium trailer for the race truck. It was horrendous.

“We would tow it on the back of the transporter and then, wherever the Bullet went, the race truck would go. It became cheaper, because we were going to the races anyway and the promoters would hire the Bullet. It was good for us and good for the sponsors.”

Image: Ron Esau

After four decades thrilling crowds all over Australia, Frank has since handed over the Bandag Bullet to a new owner. The Bullet lives on today, but there’s a different badge and refreshed bodywork. You can follow the ‘Bullet Burnout Truck’ here.

And as for the transporter? We’re still trying to find out where it is now. If you know of its whereabouts, please drop us a line on any of our social media channels or at trucksattracks@gmail.com.