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Coming of age

25th October 2012
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Page 35, 25th October 2012 — Coming of age
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Iveco’s Eurocargo model celebrates 21 years in production this year. CM looks at the history behind a truck range that has stood the test of time

Words: John Henderson / Images: Iveco / A1 Archive Iveco Ford deployed the Grenadier Guards at the Italian launch of its Eurocargo model during the spring of 1991 to acknowledge the truck’s British heritage. Branded as New Cargo in the UK, production of this CV range began at Langley just a couple of months later, after a £22m refit for the plant. Bosses at the blue oval had learned lessons from the instantaneous D Series/Cargo switchover in 1981, which resulted in unsustainable demand for the old model, so 10 years later a production overlap satisfied any last-minute orders for the outgoing bestseller. New Cargo was essentially a pan-European project, as trucks for markets in Britain and northern Europe were built at Langley, while Iveco’s Brescia works covered the remaining territories. The latter Italian site was also home to a new $25m (£15m) cab panel press that was unequalled at the time in terms of speed, accuracy and quality levels.

Hitting UK roads in October 1991, the New Cargo range initially focused on the 6to 10-tonne sector, but Alan B Fox, then VID of Iveco Ford, stressed that further development in heavier rigid categories would soon follow. UK New Cargos were recognisable by a change of model designation, with the letter E featuring between the GVW and horsepower indicator. This meant that a 114hp 7.5-tonner was badged as a 75E12 and its 141hp derivative as a 75E15. Delivering these and three other outputs in the newcomers were fourand six-cylinder diesels, with various degrees of turbocharging. Three cabs were available from the off, with day and sleeper versions complemented by an aerodynamically profiled, rooftop pod.

Super Cargo

As promised, New Cargo then duly extended to 15-tonne operations, with lightweight tractor units from 18 to 32.5 tonnes. In July 1993, Super Cargo, which had Langleybuilt engineering, made its debut on our shores. This muscle-bound middleweight covered fourand sixwheelers over the 15-tonne mark. Initially, Super Cargo had three power options available, but the mid-range 177hp Iveco 8000 Series engine proved the most popular. Drivers liked the somewhat basic interior, which was easy to clean, but suffered from limitations with storage space. Tipper operators rated the relatively high-mounted cab – requiring three access steps – and the press raved about its commanding road views.

At the time of the Super Cargo’s inception, Ford’s original squared-jawed Cargo cab was still being used for heavyweight tractor units.

Realising the further development potential of Super Cargo, Iveco Ford ushered in a 4x4 Eurocargo at the 1994 Geneva Show, complete with a choice of four engines with outputs from 143hp to 227hp. This truck exceeded in both military and civvy-street operations and carried a torque split of 33% to 67% front and rear respectively. In the same year, Langley’s 10,000th New Cargo rolled off the production line and Smith Self Drive of Rotherham was the lucky customer who stuck a new M-registration plate on its bumper at the start of August. This landmark event coincided with unanimous test data results from a variety of industry magazines, all of which confirmed that, with an average mpg figure of 21.02, New Cargo was the most economical 7.5-tonner ever trialled.

Press approval

Super Cargo was also making all the right headlines, and by late 1994 the truck had proved itself worthy of its prefix, as once again every press test of the 17/ 18-tonner had delivered the best mpg and productivity figures in the LJK marketplace. These results were based on payload, fuel economy and average speed factors. Iveco Ford’s New Cargo was a global player by late 1998, as the 120 basic models and 3,705 variations were by then sold in more than 90 countries and led the market in Britain, Bulgaria, Italy, Slovenia and Spain.

October 2000 witnessed the arrival of Iveco’s new fourand six-cylinder Tector engine range, developed jointly with Cummins and New Holland as part of the European Engine Alliance (EEA). CM enthused about this power plant and the raft of other accompanying model improvements, saying: “Forget the similarity in looks, Cargo Tector is a huge advance.” Tector engines were Euro-3 units, which utilised the latest technologies, including a sculptured block, fracture split con rods and a Bosch common-rail fuel system that fed centrally located injectors. To optimise this powertrain, two new five-speed gearboxes and a larger nine-cog box were also introduced.

The formal end of the Iveco Ford truck partnership dawned in May 2003, when the percentage of outstanding shares in the collaboration was acquired by Iveco from Ford. Running concurrently were a number of scoop headlines showing what was presumed to be a fresh Cargo design on trial. Just a few weeks later, Iveco’s new Eurocargo first saw the light of day. Now covering the entire weight range from 6.5 tonnes right through to urban artics and 6x4 rigids, Eurocargo replaced both the Cargo and Super Cargo variants.

New designs

Stile Bertone of Turin was responsible for the Eurocargo’s new interior and exterior designs, which were modern, clean-looking and of course, aerodynamic. The cab was produced in two separate height versions, with sleeper, crew cab, standard day and high-roof sleeper options. Eurocargo’s driveline was unchanged from the previous Cargo, except for a 210hp version of the Tector engine.

A manual gearbox surprised the transport media, most of whom had expected to see a full ZF auto unit. All-round disc brakes meant the newcomer stopped as well as it went. Iveco engineers boasted about the truck’s once a year (80,000km) service intervals, as well as claiming “absolutely the lowest fuel consumption of any Euro-3, 7.5-tonne commercial” .

As anticipated earlier, Eurocargo finally went fully automatic with a facelifted Euro-5 range in 2008. Alongside the new gearboxes, there was an upgraded cab and the Iveco family facelift that incorporated the model designate badging beneath the windscreen wipers. Design enhancements to the grille, bumper and air deflectors were complemented with new headlights. EEA’s Tector engines were retained for the new range, which catered for 7to 18-tonne GVWs. As Eurocargo comes of age, Iveco has, to date, produced around 500,000 examples of what is truly a truck for all seasons. n

BACKING A WINNER

The Eurocargo’s phenomenal 21 years in production didn’t just happen by accident. As with every successful CV, there’s a dedicated team of individuals working tirelessly behind the scenes to support the current product and to plan the next mechanical revisions or cosmetic enhancements for the years to come.

Iveco UK product director Martin Flach has a career that stretches back to 1977, when he joined Ford’s truck engineering team as an undergraduate. Flach returned to Ford in 1978 after graduating and joined the Delta Programme team, which would duly launch the original Cargo truck range in 1981. Still produced in some countries today, Ford’s Cargo was one of the biggest CV successes of the 20th century, although its relatively short UK lifespan was partly a result of Iveco Ford’s merger in 1986 and the ensuing New Cargo/ Eurocargo range unveiled in late 1991. After eight years specialising in service engineering, Flach was drafted into the Eurocargo project task force during 1989, two years before its launch. Part of a small team of engineers, he was instrumental in producing the pivotal 18-tonne Eurocargo chassis at Langley. Initially marketed as the SuperCargo in the UK, it was a model his Italian colleagues didn’t fully appreciate, as back then the 15/16-tonner was the mainstream distribution truck in that part of Europe. Built in leftand right-hand-drive versions, the 18-tonne SuperCargo did extremely well, just like its 7.5-tonne sibling, setting the benchmark for others to follow.

Flach moved to Brescia after Iveco Ford closed the Langley plant in the late 1990s and became project leader for the EEA Tector engine product, which provided the Eurocargo with a springboard into Euro-3 regulations and the new millennium. A spell as Eurocargo’s chief engineer followed, before a move to Turin as line manager for Iveco’s medium and heavy truck ranges within the maker’s Product Planning Group. The much-lauded Euro-5 facelift in 2008 was Flach’s final tour de force in Italy, having commuted there on a weekly basis for the last five years before returning to take up the post of UK product director at Watford.

After 35 years at the cutting-edge of truck engineering, Flach remains modest about the success of the Eurocargo’s 21 years in production. “As a product Eurocargo has done well, and it is now considered the industry benchmark by customers and other manufacturers alike. Our engineering revisions and facelifts have kept it fresh and competitive in Europe’s challenging rigid truck market conditions.”

RETURN TO THE PODIUM

They say history never repeats itself, but historical situations often recur.

That was certainly the case with Iveco Ford’s New Cargo, which decisively won the International Truck of the Year 1992 award exactly 10 years after its Cargo predecessor. New Cargo gathered 80 votes and its closest rival was Scania’s Turbocompound 113-400, with 54 nominations.

The truck also matched its ancestor’s sales success and in January 2006, after an astonishing 19 years dominating the 7.5-tonne UK truck sector, Eurocargo was finally knocked off the top spot by Daf’s LF, which had swung the balance with a sizeable Royal Mail volume purchase under its belt.


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