Peterbilt 379
The 379 was Peterbilt's flagship truck from 1987 until the 2007 model year maintaining the nameplate's signature long-nose styling coupled with a rugged edged yet refined profile. Available in standard (119″ BBC) and long hood (127″ BBC) lengths.
Variations
Replacing the "359" in 1987, it remained in production until March 2007 with the last 1,000 379s called the "Legacy Class 379".
Common powerplants
Throughout production, the 379 came loaded with some of the most powerful high-torque inline 6-cylinder turbo-diesel engines offered in on-highway vehicles. These engines included the Caterpillar C-11, C-12, C-13, C-15, C-16 and the 3406-(B,C,E,P and EWS), Cummins the "big cam" NTC, N-14, ISM, ISX, Signature 600, and Detroit Diesel 60 series and 90 series.
In popular media
Autobot leader Optimus Prime's alternate mode for the first three installments of the live-action Transformers (film series) is a Peterbilt Model-379 truck, though Optimus Prime is almost always portrayed in the various cartoon series as a flat-nose cab over semi-trailer truck (or later as a fire engine). The filmmakers have said that Optimus's final official height of 28 feet (8.5 m) in robot mode would not have been possible to allow for all of the mechanics of the CGI model if they had gone with a cab-over.
In Age of Extinction, Optimus briefly turns into a flat-nosed but rusty 1984 Marmon cabover, before switching disguises to a 2015 Western Star 5700XE
A Peterbilt 379 was used in a 1998 film, Black Dog, and the 2007 film Transformers made the truck model more popular.
Other popular culture
- A Peterbilt 379 is owned by british boxer Chris Eubank, and has the registration plate of 1 KO
- A Peterbilt 379 appeared in the movie Joy Ride :2 Dead Ahead and Joy Ride :3 Dead Ahead.
- A Peterbilt 379 appeared in the 2000 version of Gone in 60 Seconds
- A Peterbilt 379 appeared in the climactic truck-heist scene in The Fast and the Furious (2001 film)
- A Peterbilt 379 appeared in the movie Black Dog (1998)
- A close relative of the Peterbilt 379, the Kenworth W900, appeared extensively in the 1977 film "Smokey and the Bandit" driven by the country guitarist and actor, Jerry Reed.
- In Cars, Lightning McQueen mistakes "Jerry Recycled Batteries", a 1979 Peterbilt 352 voiced by Joe Ranft, for "Mack". Jerry Recycled Batteries replies "Mack? I ain't no Mack, I'm a Peterbilt for dang sake! Turn on your lights you moron!"