Cat Chopper to be Featured on Upcoming Episodes of Discovery Channel's 'American Chopper' with Orange County Choppers

Cat Chopper to be Featured on Upcoming Episodes of Discovery Channel's 'American Chopper' with Orange County Choppers

Episodes Premiere April 4 on Discovery Channel

Promotional tour to follow

PEORIA, Ill., March 4 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Caterpillar Inc. (NYSE:CAT) and Orange County Choppers, Inc. (OCC) unveiled today a custom chopper to more than 1,200 employees and guests at Caterpillar's Building Construction Products Division in Clayton, N.C.

The "Cat Chopper" build will air on upcoming episodes of Discovery Channel's hit American Chopper series on April 4 and 11 at 10 p.m. EST. Caterpillar will also launch a "Cat Chopper Tour" on May 1, with more than 30 already-scheduled appearances at Cat dealers across the country. The "Chopper Tour" will make additional stops at Caterpillar facilities and community events over the course of the next year, beginning with a special Caterpillar employee premiere viewing in Peoria, Ill., on April 11.

"Few brands evoke pride in ownership like Caterpillar. This pride is inherent in the spirit of Team Caterpillar -- 77,000 employees designing, building, selling and maintaining the world's best products and services as well as countless dealers and customers working with our products each day," said Caterpillar Group President Gerry Shaheen. "Our customers are very interested in this brand extension, and we're excited to bring it to them."

In order to draw inspiration for the design, American Chopper stars Paul Teutul Sr., Paul Teutul Jr. and Mikey Teutul toured a Caterpillar plant in East Peoria, Ill., along with its demonstration facility near Edwards, Ill., in early January, where they operated a 124 ton D11R Carrydozer. During their time in Peoria, the Teutuls were able to get up close to the products and hear from the people who make them.

"Being around the construction industry before, we know that the Cat brand carries a legacy of quality, strength and toughness...the same things we now strive for at OCC. That's why we were so excited to have an opportunity to build the Cat Chopper," said Paul Teutul Jr., OCC's chief designer and fabricator. "Touring the Caterpillar plant, seeing the quality that goes into every aspect of a machine build and meeting the people who make it all happen gave me the inspiration I needed to create a bike that Caterpillar employees, dealers and customers can be proud of calling their own. It's definitely the biggest, toughest and most rugged bike we've ever done."

For more information regarding the Cat Chopper, including locations and dates for the Cat Chopper Tour, please log onto http://www.cat.com/chopper .

About Orange County Choppers

Orange County Choppers, Inc. was founded in Rock Tavern, N.Y. in 1999. OCC grew out of Orange County Ironworks, a steel fabrication enterprise founded nearly 30 years ago by custom-chopper builder and rider, Paul Teutul Sr. OCC made its custom-bike debut at Daytona Biketoberfest 1999 with "True Blue," a classic chopper built in the basement of Paul Sr.'s house. With the growing popularity of Discovery Channel's American Chopper, OCC continues to gain acclaim and worldwide recognition for its custom-theme bikes, including: Fire Bike, P.O.W. Bike, Black Widow Bike, Comanche Bike, and Statue of Liberty Bike. OCC bikes have also been featured on numerous magazine covers, including American Iron, Freeway (France), Norsk Biker Journal (Norway) and Street Chopper. More information on OCC is available at http://www.orangecountychoppers.com/ .

About Discovery Channel

Discovery Channel is the United States' largest cable television network, serving 89.5 million households across the nation with the finest in informative entertainment. Discovery Networks, U.S., a unit of Discovery Communications, Inc., operates and manages Discovery Channel, TLC, Animal Planet, Travel Channel, Discovery Health Channel, Discovery HD Theater, Discovery Kids, Discovery Times Channel, The Science Channel, Discovery Home Channel, Military Channel, Discovery en Espanol and FitTV. The unit also distributes BBC AMERICA. For more information, please log onto http://www.discovery.com/ .

About Caterpillar Inc.

For more than 75 years, Caterpillar Inc. has been building the world's infrastructure and, in partnership with its worldwide dealer network, is driving positive and sustainable change on every continent. With 2004 sales and revenues of $30.25 billion, Caterpillar is a technology leader and the world's leading manufacturer of construction and mining equipment, diesel and natural gas engines and industrial gas turbines. More information is available at http://www.cat.com/ .

Source: Caterpillar Inc.

CONTACT: Corporate Public Affairs, Benjamin S. Cordani of Caterpillar, +1-309-675-5786, Cordani_Benjamin_s@cat.com

Web site: http://www.orangecountychoppers.com/ http://www.discovery.com/ http://www.cat.com/

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