Bill Pierre Ford

If you knew the builder of these trucks also built real firefighting brush trucks, would you call “Lil Squirt” and “Silly Willy” art imitating life, or life imitating art? If you ask Jeff Cook, owner of 1st Attack Engineering, he’ll answer, “Both!”

Cook is a graduate of “Monster Truck University” and “Custom Truck College,” as well as a trained firefighter with 18 years experience. It makes for an interesting mix of experience. Shortly after graduating from Northwestern College with a tech degree, Cook went headlong into the world of monster trucks, building and driving trucks for several teams, including his own, the legendary “War Wagon”. His father, Jack Cook, is well known in the Midwest for building custom cars and trucks and Jeff spent his early days at Cook’s Body Shop in Auburn, Indiana, learning the custom car trade from a master.

Into the breach! Lil Squirt does what any good brush truck does in a wheat stubble fire–put it out as quickly as possible. With around 850 horsepower on tap, “quick” definitely applies.

After becoming a local volunteer firefighter, he put those fabrication skills to work building a brush truck for his fire company. In the process, he discovered a life’s work and founded a company, Wildfire Manufacturing. While not running the monster truck circuit, he built fire trucks. Business picked up enough that he recently left monster trucks behind to focus on fire trucks. The name of the company has recently changed to 1st Attack Engineering after nearly 10 years as Wildfire.

Silly Willy was constructed in 2002 to highlight the design and construction skills of the company. It’s built on a custom chassis and suspension and mounts a ‘52 Willy pickup cab. Lil Squirt was built in ‘05, also on a custom chassis, but with four-wheel steering. Both have a lot of “show” and are regularly seen on the show and truck Jambo circuits, as well as at firefighting conventions.

They have a “go” side, however, and it may surprise you. They are both fully functional brush trucks, mounting 1st Attack hardware, and every once in a while, they are allowed to flex their firefighting muscles. Such was the case in the fall of 2008, when they appeared at a training fire set in a wheat field. Yep, they may be “just” show trucks, but they can do the job of a brush fire truck. When asked why he would risk the expensive trucks, Cook replied, “Oh, they’ll clean up.”

Lil Squirt uses a fiberglass body to represent a ‘37 Ford truck. The chassis and underpinnings are a smaller version of what you might see on a competition monster truck. The bed and firefighting apparatus are just the same as used on production 1st Attack brush rigs, which can include the 200-gallon water tank, Honda-powered fire pump, and two -inch handlines on reels as seen here. The outward-facing jump seats, from which firefighters can safely work a fire while strapped in and protected by a rollcage, are a signature 1st Attack feature.

Silly Willy uses a ‘52 Willys pickup body on a custom, monster truck-style chassis. It’s powered by a 454 fed by a Gerardot racing-style fuel injection system, adapted for gasoline. The power feeds through a built TH 400 trans and into a New Process 205 transfer case. From there, power goes to a Dana 70 front axle from an IH application and an Eaton rear dropout-style axle used in a 1 -ton truck. Silly Willy also mounts a 1st Attack bed system with water tank, 3/4-inch hand lines, fire pump and jump seats. It also carries a chainsaw and a backpack sprayer for hot spots.

CEO Alan Mulally is dispatching executives to 100 cities — from Olympia, Wash., to Winston-Salem, N.C. — to build enthusiasm before Taurus hits showrooms in August.

Executives are supposed to talk up the Taurus and other new vehicles in the lineup as they visit broadcasters, newspapers and just about any other place.

Taurus’ success is critical for Ford, which can’t afford to see its new flagship flop as it walks a financial tightrope. So far, it has not asked for government loans as have General Motors and Chrysler, both in bankruptcy court.

Mulally has a personal stake in Taurus, too. He rescued the name from the dustbin and pinned it on the Five Hundred sedan to mark time until this all-new version arrived.

Though Ford denies it’s intentional, the sessions will serve the additional purpose of distancing the automaker from GM and Chrysler.

“I am sure that is still part of it,” says Alexander Edwards, president of the automotive consulting arm of Strategic Vision. “In the end, they are going to have to remove that negative imagery.”

A blitz is right out of Ford’s playbook lately. It has given 100 new Fiesta minicars to bloggers, rockers and other tastemakers to build buzz before its launch. And participants streamed Twitter tweets as they squeezed 1,446 miles out of a tank of gas to promote its new Fusion Hybrid in Washington, D.C.

This time, marketing chief Jim Farley says the blitz is all about an “opportunity to connect with customers around our new lineup.” He says Detroit’s troubles won’t come up because “more than 90%” of people know Ford stands apart from GM and Chrysler.

Ford is well-positioned now, he says, because buyers are moving down from more ostentatious brands. He noted how McDonald’s is trying to encroach on the gourmet coffee business of Starbucks. He says there’s a “change in psychology away from ‘badge’ and prestige and to mainstream products that are well executed.”

Longtime auto marketing executive Gordon Wangers says those traveling Ford executives had better choose their words carefully.

Ford escaped financial disaster by being smart and lucky, but was left with a hangover of debt, he says. “I’m not the only person I’ve heard say, ‘I’m tired of their chest pounding.’ “