Maggies for military
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SQUABBLES between truck builders bidding for valuable German military vehicle orders have now been resolved.A compromise has been reached under which a share of 7,000 units has at last gone to Magirus-Deutz. Domestic politics, in which the firm's IVECO affiliation appeared to have been somewhat of an embarrassment, had caused Magirus-Deutz to be excluded from German defence orders. Personal intervention by the Minister of Defence, George Leber (a former Transport Minister long remembered for his pro-rail policies), however, found in favour of the Ulm-built range for second-line use.
Under the re-equipment programme for the armed forces, MAN is responsible for 8,400 heavy cross-country type load carriers for payloads up to 10 tonnes, while 4,000 more trucks of this make are drawn from the current standard civilian model range. Intriguingly, MAN's top of the range allwheel-drive eight-wheeler is powered by KlocknerHOmboldt-Deutz air-cooled engines, which, to the considerable chagrin of the engine suppliers, is played down.
Daimler-Benz has gained an order for several thousand medium weight trucks (type 1017), as well as a militarised version of the Unimog 1300 L, while Magirus-Deutz is now en.gaged in building suitablyequipped 168 M 11 FL 4x2 vehicles for a five tonne payload. This design incorporates. ,much of the "Club-of-Four" technology, including the tilt cab common to the three other makes which shared this development. A 4x4 version of this model, as well as a 97kW (130bhp) engined two tonne 4x4 are also being built at Ulm,
Preliminary details of 1977
results by Magirus-Deutz reflect. a turnover about eight per cent below that of the previous year, which saw completion of the massive site vehicle order for the USSR. 19,500 vehicles were sold. against 21,700 in 1976,
and this figure included 1,480 psv and psv chassis, as well as 520 fire-fighting units in Germany increased by almost 10 per cent to 8,300 vehicles, while the export share reached 61 per cent of production.