SCHMITZ CARGOBULL SENDS MERC RACING
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by Bryan Jarvis British truck racing's Team IRU/TIR Atkins, four times winner of the FIA European Truck Racing Championship is shifting its mighty Mercedes-Benz racer between meetings using a novel Schmitz Cargobull trailer.
The new tandem-axled transporter complies with continental limitations of 16.5m and 28 tonnes but is a radical change from Schmitz's usual food-carrying temperature controlled vehicles.
Based on a Tinsley Trailer chassis, the front third of the trailer has a T-shaped construction over it that includes a workshop, generator and compressor over the neck. Behind that are air-conditioned (or heated) living quarters and a computer room plus tyre, wheel and spares storage in the rear overhang.
There also added stowage space in the chassis area.
For road movement, the racer is reversed up the aluminium ramps and its back end positioned under the overhanging body. Pulled by a more stately sleepercabbed Mercedes 1850, it carries British and European truck race winner Steve Parrish's Merc 1834S Big Bomber with its mighty 1,000hp (746kW) 11.3 litre V-6 to 40 races around Eastern Europe and Scandinavia.
Covering more than 100,000 miles, the Schmitz trailer will earn its keep over the minimum of five years that Team Atkins intends using it.