Rubber Duck’s Legendary Truck From Convoy
Many truck enthusiasts are sure to remember the Mack RS-712LST which was made famous in the classic 1978 movie, Convoy. Directed by Sam Peckinpah, Convoy featured an all star cast including Kris Kristofferson, Ali MacGraw and the legendary actor Ernest Borgnine. This exciting action-packed movie was based on a 1975 country and western song that was written by C.W. McCall and Chip Davis. The mid-to-late 1970s saw a massive rise in the popularity of trucking and CB Radios, making the release of this movie perfectly timed for success.
The main character in Convoy is Martin “Rubber Duck” Penwald who is the driver of the famous truck. However, most people don’t realize that there were actually four different trucks used throughout the movie, although there is one that was used for most of the promotional photos which was the 1977 Mack RS-712LST. The movie was produced by EMI who actually designed the truck specifically for the film. Mack was then commissioned to build the visually enticing and uniquely designed truck that was made famous in theaters across the United States.
Being used in a big budget action movie takes its toll on a vehicle, and once the movie was completed the RS-712LST truck was practically destroyed. However, the truck was sent back to Mack who completely restored it to its original glory. In a strange turn of events, the truck was eventually sold and transformed into a dump truck. One of the other trucks used in the filming of the movie, a 1973 Mack RS-797LST, was used extensively for stunts and was left as scrap metal in the end. Lastly, there were two Mack RS-731LST trucks used in the film which were also destroyed during the process.
Some say that the best known truck from the movie, the 1977 RS-712LST, has been reworked and revised by truck enthusiasts and still exists to this day. The next time that you see a truck on the highway, look closely. You might just be driving by Rubber Duck’s legendary truck from this classic film.
Cool stuff. I remember building the model, still have it. Sadly the model use the DM series Mack.