A truck hand-designed by Cal Poly mechanical engineering senior Jack Fisher will appear on the upcoming season of the Discovery Channel show, “Twin Turbos.”
Fisher co-founded the engineering consulting firm Tekk Consulting during his freshman year at Cal Poly. The firm uses 3D scanning, reverse engineering, automotive chassis — or truck framework — design and development, collaborative robotic integrations and 3-D printing for usable parts to create unique innovations.
In the past few years since, Fisher and other founding members have grown the firm’s online presence and worked to make Tekk Consulting known to the world.
“My firm specializes in taking our clients’ ideas and engineering them into reality,” Fisher said.
Professional driver and “Twin Turbos” personality Brad DeBerti, who had partnered with Toyota Motor Corporation for this project, approached Tekk Consulting roughly eight months ago and presented them with his vision for a vehicle called the Performance Truck. It was then up to the firm to turn his unique vision into a real-life, drivable vehicle.
Fisher was responsible for the 3D scanning component, data acquisition of the stock platform, drawing the complementary chassis structure and designing multiple interior and exterior accessories for the vehicle, according to co-founder and primary shareholder of Tekk Consulting Jason Heard.
Fisher started by 3D scanning a 2019 Toyota Tacoma extended cab, then designed the Performance Truck chassis to fit the Toyota Tacoma. They designed a suspension that was “both strong and diverse enough to handle jumps, rallycross, drag racing and drifting,” Fisher said.
“[Fisher] has a lot of hours in design work for that specific project,” Heard said.
The truck was embellished with accessories to further match DeBerti’s vision, most of which were designed by Fisher himself. Some of these include the truck’s billet aluminum dashboard and “drift” brake handle, 3D printed aerodynamic dive planes and canards on the sides of the truck and 3D printed body panels.
On Nov. 7, Fisher left for Las Vegas to display his truck at the annual Specialty Equipment Marketing Association (SEMA) show. The show is set to air on TV within the next few months in the upcoming season of “Twin Turbos.” The truck will be featured in two episodes of the show, according to Jason Heard. Fisher said the specific episodes are unknown.
“Twin Turbos” follows DeBerti and his father, Doug DeBerti, as they “push the boundaries” to create “outrageous, state-of-the-art vehicles,” according to the Discovery Channel website. The sales from each vehicle fund Brad DeBerti’s dream to become a NASCAR driver.
Though the Performance Truck will soon air on TV, Fisher said he and his firm plan to continue growing their business, taking clients and creating exceptional innovations.