Bonk Reviews
Page 58
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Magirus and Leyland studies
THE LATEST in the World Trucks series from the publishers Patrick Stephens cover Magirus and Leyland.
As usual, the author is Pat Kennett and the format follows that used for the previous 12 books in the series by concentrating on well-captioned photographs rather than solid blocks of text.
The Magirus book (E4.95) concentrates very much on the Magirus side with very little reference to the Deutz connections except where unavoidable. Following current lveco policy, the cover picture has a vehicle complete with Magirus, Turbo and Iveco logos and no mention of Deutz.
Tracing the progress of the company from its fire engine origins, the book is packed with interesting pictures from the Magirus archives, going back to 1872.
Apart from covering the direct company lineage, the author follows up interesting sidelines including the short lived Seddon-Deutz project of the late Sixties.
The Leyland book (number 14 in the series and also £4.95) concentrates on the conventional road-going vehicles but does not ignore Leyland's long military involvement which included tanks, incendiary bombs, cannons and aluminium components for aero engines.
One interesting photograph in this context is of a 10x6 transporter used to move tanks from the Leyland factories. Based on the standard Octopus eight-wheeler chassis, it was suitably beefed up to accept 26 tons of tank.
The advantage to a historian of covering Leyland as a subject is the extent of the company's archives, which means that it is possible to produce a book without using photographs which have been seen many times before.
One point worth mentioning is that the Kennett book deals with Leyland lorries only, as the title of the series would suggest. Leyland group engines come under the author's scrutiny and he certainly pulls no punches when it comes to criticism. "Warranty losses on the 500 were enormous" and "an even more disastrous engine was the AEC V8" are typical examples.
As with the previous volumes, these are worthy additions to any collection.
Patrick Stephens Ltd, Bar Hill, Cambridge, C83 8EL.
G.S.M.