The number plate of this month’s first inductee into the Bridgestone Million Mile Club says it all: 104CAT. Owned and operated by Legacy Transport of Cambridge, the 2004 Kenworth K104 is powered by a mighty C15 Caterpillar.

Jhai James of Legacy brings us up to speed with the truck’s history: “It was custom-built new for Gary Johnstone of Brenics in Christchurch, so it has the deep blue interior. It was spec’d with the Cat and an Eaton auto-shift AMT transmission. It was a series one, so it had the big push buttons instead of a Cobra shifter. We have made changes by fitting a manual 22-series 18-speed Roadranger, which has transformed it. The unit has just over 2,700,000km on the clock now, and it was around 400,000km ago when a re-manned C15 was fitted, replacing the old one. So, yeah, now it’s just the normal maintenance and servicing; she’s running sweet,” explains Jhai.

The truck did a stint at Johnston Trucking, so a coat of red paint was applied to the cab, along with white and blue stripes. After this, it was parked up for a while with the next owner, as unfortunately a contract it was lined up for fell through. The team at Legacy purchased it in September of 2021, still with its red cab. Once back at home base in Cambridge, it was a given a tidy-up and put straight to work.

In 2022, 104CAT was given a birthday. It was stripped back, repainted in the Legacy fleet colours and treated to a load of fresh chrome and bling and a new set of Alcoa alloy rims. The fuel lines have all been updated as they were starting to delaminate, and the old exhaust system has also been replaced with brand-new Donaldson mufflers with 6in chrome stacks. As Jhai says: “She sounds real good now.”