Colorado Auto & Parts is home to the famous “Plymouth Air Radial Truck” — A 1939 Plymouth PT-81 truck with a seven-cylinder, air-cooled, radial engine from a 1954 Cessna 195 Airplane
The project for the radial-engined truck began years ago when Gary Corns bought the beat-up old 1939 Plymouth from a regular customer.
It sat for over 30 years as they worked on other projects and ruminated over what they should to with it — until one day when Corns senior found an old seaplane in a nearby airplane wrecking yard that still had its Jacobs R-755 radial engine bolted to the front.
- 757 Cubic Inches – Bore: 5.25″ Stoke: 5″ – 6:1 Compression
- 300 hp @ 2,200 RPM Full Throttle
- 2,200 RPM True Stall Torque Converter
- Th400 automatic Transmission
- Casale V-Drive
- Franklin Quick Change Rear End
Building the Plymouth Air Radial Truck
Dropping a 12.4 liter Jacobs R-755 radial aircraft engine into a 1939 Plymouth pickup truck is no small task, but one that was performed by the Corns family of Colorado.
