British make three-pronged attack on European market
Page 36
Page 37
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
Gibb Grace reports from Frankfurt Photographer Dick Ross catches the early arrivals • The appearance of the Bedford Blitz, the }ILIAC Marathon and the Ford A-Series ensured an unprecedented interest in British vehicles at the Frankfurt Motor Show which opened this week. Bedford, BLMC and Ford used the occasion to launch a three-pronged attack on the European market with emphasis on the German sector.
Bedford has its new middle-weight truck on show, Leyland has tractive units and a drawbar version of the Marathon Eurotruck and Ford took the dust covers off two new light and medium-weight trucks — the A-series and the N-series.
The A-series is fully described elsewhere in this issue. The N-series is a derivative of the D-series which has been specially tailored to meet the needs of the German market. It will be assembled in Amsterdam.
Apart from these new British models, there is plenty of interest on the stands of the foreign manufacturers, Daimler-Benz, Magirus-Deutz and MAN-Bussing have very large numbers of exhibits. The main attraction on the Daimler-Benz stand is the first of their new rationalized models to use the new cab, all of which are tippers. Magirus has a surprise vehicle — the British-style eight-wheeler. This model, 232D30, is a 8x4 design and has a V8 aircooled engine driving through a ZF gearbox to a double-drive two-spring bogie. The model on show is obviously destined for the UK as it has an "mph" speedometer and has built-in, right-hand drive.
MAN has new underfloor-engined Bussing models and is showing for the first time an 88-seat double-deck bus.
Volvo is showing several models from its new N-series bonneted range and Scania, not to be outdone, also has revised bonneted models to show.
DAF is giving a lot of space to its new top of the range model, the 2800 series, and is also showing for the first time a 6x4 tipper chassis which uses an International Harvester cab.
An illustrated report on the Frankfurt Show will appear in next week's CM.