You might not recognize the name Chris Fiore, but chances are you have seen him somewhere on television over the past few years.
Some of his most notable television and big screen projects include several episodes of Baywatch (yeah, that beach show with Pamela Anderson and what's his name), coordinating the snowmobile scenes for John Travolta in the movie Lucky Numbers and most recently a slew of commercials including for Wendy's, Chevrolet Trucks, Verizon and Toyota of Canada. When we last talked to Fiore in early July he was headed to Utah to be the driver for Honda in its photo shoot for Honda's new quad ads, brochures and the like.
These days Fiore is known more as a "precision driver," a term used in Hollywood for those who drive professionally for commercials and other shows, versus a stunt driver who crashes-on purpose, of course.
While some might be star struck by the likes of someone like Fiore, we're more star struck by his diesel truck (no offense Mr. Fiore).
His truck might be near all the glitz and glamour of Hollywood and Southern California but anybody who knows Fiore knows he uses his truck for work-and play.
Fiore can be seen driving around Southern California and arriving on the set in his 2007 Chevy C4500 Kodiak Crew Cab 4x4 diesel truck. This Kodiak sports 22.5-inch Alcoa rims on Michelin tires. More than likely, if you happen to catch a glimpse of Fiore and his Kodiak, you'll see some of his toys sitting on the Parker Rancher 11-foot flatbed and/or towing his toy hauler, also loaded down with either snowmobiles, quads, a sand rail or Suzuki Samurai. When the Kodiak is loaded down with those toys Fiore is usually headed to either Mammoth Lakes, CA, to snowmobile or the sand dunes to ride quads or his sand rail.
Fiore is pretty particular when it comes to equipment, whether it be his snowmobiles, quads, sand rails and especially his truck. He meticulously maintains all this equipment and despite his celebrity status, prefers to work on most of his equipment himself. He even built the front push bar himself, which surrounds the four Eagle Eye HID lights.
Engine mods include a PPE programmer, which Fiore runs mostly on level two when he's towing, an aFe air filter and Bully Dog propane injection system. The truck uses 5:13 gears and has an Allison 6-speed automatic transmission. Fiore said all that puts him in the neighborhood of 425-450 hp with 850 ft. lbs. of torque. "It will pull a house," he tells us. Or at least something close to it. We've seen the Kodiak loaded down with two snowmobiles and pulling Fiore's toy hauler loaded down with another snowmobile-all flying down the highway.
For those long rides to Mammoth, there are three TVs and two DVD players (he is in show biz after all), along with all the amps and speakers you can imagine inside the crew cab.
And you would probably have to be in show biz to be able to afford to fill Fiore's Chevy Kodiak, especially considering the price of diesel in California and the fact that he added a 47-gallon tank to the truck, which came with a 35-gallon tank, for a total capacity of 82 gallons.
And with Fiore's attention to detail, his Kodiak is a thing of beauty as it rolls down the highway.
"The truck is realistically like driving a parade down the street," Fiore said. "People are always trying to take pictures of it."
He adds, "It's the safest thing I can imagine driving my family around in."
Perhaps that's because when other folks see his Kodiak rumbling down the highway, they tend to get out of the way.