A.E.C. ENGINE FOR NEW ITALIAN EIGHT-WHEELER
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IN myreport of the Italian Motor Show, published in our issue of November 8, 1963, I devoted considerable space to the growing number of rigid eight-wheeled goods chassis which were being used in Italy at 22 tons solo gross weight in order to overcome the legislation which restricts six-wheelers to 18 tons. The many rigid eights displayed at last year's Show were all conversions of existing fourand six-wheelers, but now details are revealed of a "one-make" eightwheeler developed by Officine Meccaniche Tortonesi S.r.1., Tortona, commonly known as " 0.M.T. " and hitherto associated principally with trailers and semi-trailers, although a fair number of third-axle conversions have been part of their production programme. The new O.M.T. eight-wheeler is the first rigid eight to be built in Italy by one manufacturer alone, and as such is interesting in itself, although possibly of greater interest from the British viewpoint is the fact that the design was originally developed with an A.E.C. AV690 diesel engine, and that now that the model is to go into production 120 of these engines have been ordered from A.E.C. by O.M.T. The vehicle is stated to be suitable for a gross-train-weight rating of 44 tons (although the Italian limit is 40 tons), and the high-rated version of the A.E.C. engine is used, this having a gross (S.A.E.) rating of 200 b.h.p.
The gearbox is mounted separately from the engine and consists of a fourspeed main section combined with a twospeed auxiliary train and only the leading rear axle is driven, the trailing axle having Pirelli-Saga air suspension. Adjustment of the pressure in the bellows of this suspension makes it possible to transfer additional loading to the driving axle to give extra traction when required. The fourth axle is of the self-steering type and has single tyres. The new vehicle has been designated the MF4, and its solo rating is 22 tons. It has a full forward-control layout and right-hand steering, and the all-steel cab is the same as that used on current Fiat heavy-goods chassis, incorporating sleep ing accommodation. J.F.M.