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. Three modified 379s were used interchangeably. There was much controversy over this in the Transformers fan community because 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); his movie incarnation would be the second with an extended nose conventional cab. The filmmakers have said that, ignoring the fan-termed "mass shifting" associated with the series, 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, which would have dropped him instead to a smaller 20 feet (6.1 m).