There’s a Guinness World Record for just about every achievement you can imagine, plus many you’ve likely never thought about. One of the more obscure records is for the world’s fastest food truck, and an entrepreneur from New Jersey hopes to set it with an International-Harvester Metro van. “That’s way too slow,” you say? Not necessarily: This van is pretty much a C8-gen Corvette underneath.
New Jersey native LJ Koch built the truck, which he calls the Vettro, from the ground up, according to NorthJersey.com. He started the project by buying a 1950s Metro van that he found sitting behind a building in Pine Brook, NJ, and paid $400 for in July 2018. His original plan wasn’t to build a race car; he simply wanted to restore it while preserving as much of the patina as possible and use it as a vehicle for his catering business. The project was completed a little over a year later, and the reborn Metro made its maiden voyage in September 2019.
The van’s fate took an unexpected turn when Koch ended up with a Corvette donor car. Fast-forward to 2025, and the Metro and the ‘Vette have become one. The van’s patina is complemented by LED headlights, wheel arch flares, custom-made side skirts, and a rear spoiler large enough to use as a dinner table. The five-spoke wheels tell the rest of the story: There’s a Corvette chassis under the toaster-shaped body.
We’ve seen and written about a lot of custom-built, body-swapped cars, but this is the first time we’ve stumbled upon a vehicle with both a mid-mounted, 6.2-liter V8 engine and beer taps. The van’s interior isn’t used for food prep, as the small block takes up a bit too much space, but its rear side panels open to reveal taps on one side (out of a Snap-On tool chest, no less) and a warming area on the other. We’d have to guess that the V8’s heat helps keep those trays toasty. Regardless, the Vettro accelerates and sounds like a Corvette. It certainly looks like the world’s fastest food truck.
Time will tell whether it earns a spot in the Guinness Book of World Records. Koch will promote the record attempt by taking the Vettro to the Indy 500 over Memorial Day weekend, and the van’s first timed run will take place on July 27 on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway ahead of the Brickyard 400 NASCAR Cup Series race. There’s currently no record for the world’s fastest food truck. Guinness created the category specifically for Koch, so a bone-stock Chevy Corvair Greenbrier running on half of its cylinders could, in theory, claim the honors.
Koch explained that his van will need to hit at least 130 mph in order to set a record and redefine the term “fast food.” That’s well short of the Corvette Stingray’s advertised top speed of 194 mph, but the Metro doesn’t exactly excel in the aerodynamics department.
Got tips? Send ’em to tips@thedrive.com