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Brandon’s Classic Trucks B ack in 1979, Dodge was just a small player in the pickup truck segment that was dominated by Ford as well as General Motors through its Chevrolet and GMC models. But its petite segment share made Dodge a spunky competitor. For hard work, Dodge offered powerful Cummins diesel engines and just for fun, in 1978 it launched the Li’l Red Express, a pickup that became the fast- est production vehicle in 1979. Only 7,306 Li’l Reds were pro- duced during its two years of production and those remaining are highly sought after. Brandon Press’s father test drove this special Dodge in 1979 and was smitten, but just didn’t have the budget for what was clearly a fun truck with its high output 360 CID V8 and wooden bed liner. But a short time later he suffered a motorcycle accident and was able to buy the Li’l Red with the settlement. And son Brandon pretty much grew up in the truck. When the family moved to Nevada, the state’s smog rules wouldn’t allow the truck to be street driven so they modified the willing engine with a supercharger and nitrous oxide and went drag racing. And if that wasn’t entertaining enough, the engine was later swapped for a 440 CID V8 with a six-pack (three, two-barrel carburetors). The young Press drove Li’l Red until joining the Navy in 2000 where he served nine deployments on Destroyers as a Tomahawk Technician. Brandon acquired Li’l Red in 2006 and in 2014 they gave the truck a frame-up restoration. Brandon’s second truck is a low-slung ’77 Dodge that packs a 5.7-liter Hemi bolted to a five-speed automatic trans- mission. It’s updated to 21 st century comfort with automatic LED headlights and power door locks, air conditioning and even Apple CarPlay. He’s been offered twice the going price for his trucks but his daughter, Lane, a fellow enthusiast, wants one and after all, by now it’s become a family tradition. Brandon married at a youthful 19 and has celebrated 24 years with his wife Shannon Press. During Navy travels, the Press’s son Logan was born in Japan with Lane arriving stateside. Press retired from the Navy in 2020 and works for General Dynamics in Kings Bay in Nuclear Weapons Security. AUTO MART AUTO MART (904) 321 - 1720 2266 SOUTH 8 TH STREET AMELIA ISLAND (904) 321 - 1720 2266 SOUTH 8TH STREET AMELIA ISLAND 8 T he 29 Th A nnuAl 8- flAgs cAr show