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Celebrity Car Death Match: Rubber Duck’s 1977 Mack From Convoy VS The Blue Mule 1974 Ford From White Line Fever!


Celebrity Car Death Match: Rubber Duck’s 1977 Mack From Convoy VS The Blue Mule 1974 Ford From White Line Fever!

Yesterday it was a face off between iconic cars and drivers with Steve McQueen and James Bond doing battle with their Mustang and Aston Martin respectively. Both the characters and the cars will forever been linked together. Hell, 50 years from now someone will know about the Bullitt car chase and James Bond movies will continue to be released on a yearly basis. Trust us, it’ll happen. So…how did yesterday’s fight turn out? Read on to see! Today’s fight? Yeah, it is pretty much the opposite of all that stuff. Big rigs of doom!

[box_dark]Steve McQueen’s Highland Green Mustang VS James Bond’s silver Aston Martin DB5

Mustang defeats Aston Martin

James Bond and his car are dead….killed by the coolest MF’r who ever lived.[/box_dark]

The 1970s were a decade filled with fascination about the trucking industry and the truck driving lifestyle. Movies like Convoy, White Line Fever, and others were centered around truckers while lots of other films had trucks in prominent roles like Smokey and the Bandit, for instance. Today we’re placing two of the most well known trucks from the decade that brought us the chrome naked chick mud flap and pitting them against one another in a death match. May the best truck survive!

In this corner is the 1977 Mack RS786LST of “Rubber Duck” from the movie Convoy. This truck was equipped with a Mack “tip turbine” turbocharged inline six diesel that made 283hp. The engine was backed by a 10-speed Fuller Roadmaster transmission. Rolling on a 220″ wheelbase and wearing a 60″ standup style sleeper, it was a pretty bad ass rig for its day. It was fitted with a big bull bar and all to look tough. During the movie there were several Mack’s used including another ’77 and a couple of ’72 models for different scenes, all acting as the same truck. We think it looks cool with the black steel wheels as opposed to polished aluminum or chrome pieces. The truck was used to smash and bash all kinds of stuff in the movie. It drove through buildings, cop cars, and anything else in its path. Ultimately it was driven off a bridge. That wasn’t something the Mack could recover from sadly. Don’t be fooled by the sound effects in the movie, this truck absolutely did not have a Detroit Diesel engine in it. The sound guys just dubbed it that way. The actual “hero truck” from the movie is still around and in fantastic shape, which rules all.

The Blue Mule from White Line Fever is a 1974 Ford WT9000 powered by an NTC-400hp Cummins engine which was backed by a 10-speed transmission like the Mack above. Like the Mack, the Blue Mule met a violent end when its driver, fed up with being harassed and blackballed by trucking companies for refusing illegal cargo, decided to take it out on the big corporate conglomerate that was behind all of his trouble. The driver crashed the gate (maybe doing 98?), survived a hail of gunfire, and then launched the big Ford though the corporate sign at the “Glass House” in a symbolic action that showed him to be breaking their power all to bits. Like in Convoy, the Blue Mule truck was involved in chases, crashes, smashes, and other action through the film. Obviously the horsepower advantage goes to the Ford, but is that enough to beat the Mack? In a head on collision, I am not taking the cab over to win…at least not with me in it!

COMMENT BELOW AND GIVE US YOUR VOTES! WHICH HUGE TRUCK SHOULD WIN THIS BATTLE TO THE DEATH IN THE BANGSHIFT CELEBRITY CAR DEATH MATCH RING OF FURY?


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25 thoughts on “Celebrity Car Death Match: Rubber Duck’s 1977 Mack From Convoy VS The Blue Mule 1974 Ford From White Line Fever!

  1. Gonkulator

    rubber ducks mack all the way love that truck ! Im still wondering why you havent mentioned the peterbuilt from the movie black dog I gave you the tip about it like 3 weeks ago !

  2. Chip

    Dude… This is a toughie! Both equal levels of kick-ass. Hmmmm. Three of us are discussing this at work, Duck’s Mack by the tiniest of hairs. The Blue Mule is killer, though!

  3. jerry z

    This is a tough one! Both were great truck movies but the ‘Blue Mule’ is the winner!

  4. JDM

    Mack all the way!! Love the conventional cab trucks. Never cared for the cabovers much and the Mack is far superior to any ford truck out there.

  5. snipehunter

    How about BJ and the bear Kenworth K100 coe against the Blue mule and the old Pete from Duel against the Mack.

    1. tiresmoke!

      I’ll tkae the R-model Mack in this fight…having driven examples of both, I’d bounce around in the decidedly underpowered Bulldog first 400 Cummins or not, Ford never built a Class 8 tractor that was worth a damn in terms of a long-haul tractor.

      The BJ& The Bear-series K100 Aerodyne would get the final vote…400 Cummins, 13-speed Fuller RoadRanger transmission(the old 12-series Fullers had a whine to them), air-ride suspension.

      The “Blue Mule” moniker is one that MANY trucks have worn since that movie…a guy that my late father and I drove for had a late-70’s International 4300-series tractor with the “Blue Mule” bit painted on it(this actually looked better).

  6. chadb

    bulldog mack here. but all of the talk of movie trucks, and i haven’t seen the snowman’s w900 kw(smokey and the bandit) mentioned yet. tough bet would be that one vs the peterbilt 281 from duel.

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