The Garage Build to end all Garage Builds…

There is a certain look a man gets when he gazes over his creation, while we spoke during the podcast Terry had that glimmer in his eye. He designed, built and legalized the aptly named “Exotruck,” completely by himself, in a single car garage. The Exotruck, which is patented, took 1 year to build and since its creation Terry has put 20,000 reliable miles until he blew the motor a few weeks ago. The whole build cost only $4,400, all of which is documented as proof to the state in order to legalize the machine. I met Terry in his newly rented shop in Bridgeville, PA where he is rebuilding the new motor and manufacturing the 1st of 5 Exotruck skeletons that you the consumer can purchase.

Terry has been a Subaru enthusiast for quite a while and between him and his circle of friends have been working on imports since high school. After his Forester was starting to rust out from the horrible Pennsylvania winters Terry was looking for a donor car when he came across a gentleman in Australia building wild looking UTE’s with exposed cages. This was the inspiration Terry needed to create a CAD drawing and purchase some tubing to start his build. In his previous life Terry referred to himself as a “pencil pusher,” for an amusement park construction company which allowed him to hone his skills with metal design. Judging from the beautiful welds, fantastic build quality and overall construction I would say Terry is far beyond his “pencil pusher,” self proclaimed status…

Before Terry sent a piston into orbit the Exotruck was powered by an JDM Legacy drivetrain. The sequential turbo motor and 6 speed transmission, made for 6 cylinder motor, has no center control differential so AWD is always engaged. On a Mustang dyno it made 350hp to the wheels on 15lbs of boost with a broken boost controller. Weighing in at 2500lbs around the same as an Alpha Romeo 4c this thing can move. The power band is wide, like 3000-8000rpm wide, and cruises at 5psi of boost. The new setup will be a 2.2 EJ22 stuffed with all of the best engine internals where Terry is shooting for 500whp and running 10s at the track.

When he set up the “Exo” portion of the Exotruck he started by building everything around the radiator. Terry wanted to get everything as far back as possible for weight distribution while hugging the top of radiator to create the front low profile. Aesthetically the car flows incredibly well and looks like a professionally drawn out manufactured vehicle not typically seen on scratch built hotrods. All design, welds, metal work was done by Terry in a single car garage. It does not have door because, “I didn’t have room in my garage to open them.” The tube design was well thought out making certain there were no straight tubes in case he gets in a wreck ensuring he does not get impaled by his own creation. The UTV side mirrors have sequential turn signals, Halo headlights, front turn signals and fog lights keep the truck well lit and legal for the road. The rear end is where the truck aspect of the Exotruck name comes in. The fully functional bed is used quite frequently as shown on Terry’s Instagram. The huge wing doubles as an extension for hauling longer loads and is braced by custom cut aluminum “Exo” branded uprights.

The interior is all business and looks like a go cart mixed with a prototype race car. Since the car is legally registered it has all of the safety equipment functioning to pass inspection. The windshield wipers come in handy when the piston decides to make a sunroof in the block and creates a river of oil on the interstate. For the engine data logging the Exotruck runs an Android tablet connected to a button to log on the fly. Terry self tuned the motor by refreshing the ECU as he drove to get the desired performance. The gauge cluster, steering column and shifter are all out of the Legacy donor car. The homemade center dash panel houses all of the necessary additional gauges, usb port and mount for the Andriod tablet. The seats are Corbreau with 5 point harnesses and Terry even gave himself some magnetic cup holders for additional creature comforts.

Infinite adjustment in his suspension comes from custom top hats with hole drilled front and back, IOC coilovers, gives him tons of adjustment for camber and caster. The gold eBay wheels are 18x10 +30 wrapped in 265/35 Michelin pilot sports. It’s has an R180 rear diff, 5 lug knuckles and hubs with custom hybrid axles that can handle 500hp while the front are stock Impreza axles.

Terry’s next project is an Exotruck that he will turn into an EV via dual Tesla motors and paint it pink for his wife! He has been working with EV West to get the support needed to pull off the task. The setup will be a stand alone system that can control each unit independently and Terry thinks he can get into the 9’s with the EV setup. Knowing that it will be a tough sell for the consumer he understands that the future of vehicles is going full electric. He wants to be the only one with an Exotruck EV and wants to, “break the internet.” His first few chassis can be custom tailored for any type of engine/transmission setup. Once his website is live you can find him at www.theextotruck.com where you can purchase your very own Exotruck. You can find him on instagram @exotruck or riding that beautiful creation down the road in Pittsburgh, PA. If you have additional questions for Terry hit him up or email the podcast radridespodcast@gmail.com.