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Equipment &
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Product Watch: What’s new and news from suppliers – PG. 28
The Shell Starship 3.0 at Barber Motorsports Park in Birmingham, Ala. (Photo: Leo Barros)
Ground Controls
Today’s Trucking enjoys rare opportunity
to drive one-of-a-kind Shell Starship 3.0
By Leo Barros
I am one of a handful of people on Earth
who can say they’ve driven a Starship.
“Sounds like you are going to Mars,” a
buddy said when I told him about it.
The Shell Starship 3.0 looks like a
spaceship on 18 wheels, its bullet-shaped
chassis and fairings hugging the road.
And getting into the truck is similar
to entering a small aircraft, with a set of
stairs deployed from the passenger side.
The driver’s side has no door.
26 TODAY’S TRUCKING
Inside, the surroundings are more
lounge and chill-out space than tradi-
tional cab. The large semicircular couch
that can be pulled out into a bed provides
comfortable seating. A flatscreen televi-
sion adds to the experience.
From behind the wheel, the hood
seems to extend forever, thanks to its
aerodynamic design.
Powered by a Cummins X15N natural
gas engine, which can run on renewable
natural gas when available, it sounds like
a diesel, but there’s no fuel smell to speak
of around the cab.
Screens on both sides of the cab inte-
rior work as mirrors, relaying informa-
tion collected by the cameras mounted
outside. (Infrared technology provides
an extra layer of safety during low-vision
and nighttime operations).
And the truck maneuvered easily
through the Barber Proving Ground in
Barber Motorsports Park in Birmingham,
Ala. I kept a gentle pace, under the
watchful eye of Eric, its usual driver.
There was nothing unusual. It drove like a
normal diesel-powered vehicle.
That’s where normalcy ends. Last
year, the truck achieved notable num-
bers while loaded to a GVW of 80,000 lb.
during a demonstration.