First of It's Kind

Street Diesel Performance’s Next-gen F-450

- Bryon Dorr

The SEMA crunch is real, and no one knows that more than Sean O’Hara and his team at Street Diesel Performance (SDP), who have been building impressive SEMA show trucks for American Force Wheels since 2012. For the 2016 SEMA Show they built up a true monster, a 2017 Ford F-450 6.7L crew cab, long bed dually. The idea behind the project was to build an eye-catching truck that would showcase the American Force Wheels, Toyo Tires, and RIZE Industries suspension well. While the body has lots of custom touches, and lots of sponsor logos, it was done in a way to give it a very clean look that wouldn’t draw eyes from the impressive rolling stock and suspension.

ONE MONTH BUILD

The SEMA crunch is a real thing, but gets even more real when you’re dealing with an all-new vehicle, as the Ford Super Duty line got a full body and frame makeover for the 2017 model year. The 2017 trucks hit the market about a month before SEMA this year, giving the SPD crew a tight window in which to build out a custom vehicle of this magnitude.

O’Hara ordered up the exact truck he wanted, a 2017 Ford F-450 6.7L crew cab long bed dually in Race Red with the Ultimate Lariat interior, on the same day the 2017s went on sale. But the truck he ordered has still not materialized. Only three weeks before the show, O’Hara scrambled to find a 2017 F-450 that met his needs. The most important factor was the Race Red paint, as that color would work perfectly with the American Force booth that had already been designed. He lucked out in finding the exact truck he was looking for on a lot in South Carolina, but the long haul down and back from and to his shop in Connecticut ate into the already-tight build schedule.