IN BRIEF
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• Improved sales in the UK helped Foden Trucks' parent company Paccar to increase its sales by 29% to 2690 million during the first half of 1987. It recorded a first-quarter net income of 229.8 million.
• Jitters about the Gulf situation seem set to keep bulk diesel prices fluctuating for some time. Several of the major oil companies raised their prices earlier this month, with Shell leading the way with a 1.8p/lit increase.
Shell, Texaco and BP upped their prices by between 1.3p/lit and 1.8p/lit — the second increase in just over a fortnight.
• A group of German-owned MAN F90 tractive units caused a stir at the Multipart British Grand Prix last weekend by appearing with disc front brakes.
The MANs — including one of the first of the big vee-10engined 19.462 units — were using a similar set-up to that used on some coach chassis, with massive discs built by Knorr. In common with most vehicles racing at Silverstone, they use large-diameter flexible trunking to carry cooling air to the brakes.
It was noticeable that while even the 19.462 was nowhere near as fast as the front runners in the high-power classes, the disc-braked MANs had much better braking performance. The disc brakes
were allowing them to go far deeper into corners before braking: an advantage that was very noticeable at the end of the long straight.
MAN — which-does not officially support truck racing — says that the use of the disc-braked front axle on the racing trucks is not a part of any long-term brake development programme.