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Continental drift

5th January 2012, Page 34
5th January 2012
Page 34
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Page 34, 5th January 2012 — Continental drift
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Contrary to popular opinion, foreign made trucks have always found willing buyers in the UK

Words: Dave Young According to popular theory Britain had a great truck manufacturing industry – arguably the best in the world – until the late 1960s, when it was either blatantly stolen by foreign manufacturers or squandered by incompetent management, according to your preferred viewpoint.

Neither of these versions is true; European-made trucks have found willing British owners since Mr Benz invented the irst horseless commercial. From the start, lorry makers in mainland Europe were frequently more innovative than domestic CV producers and better at marketing and collaboration. As early as the 1920s the French maker Berliet dealt with over-production by offering chassis across the channel at knock-down prices via an outpost at Twickenham. Associated Press, for instance, bought an entire leet.

Around the same time there were Berna, Mercedes, ▲ Heading for Fleet Street Lancia, Minerva and Unic wagons on Britain’s A roads. As this Armstrong Saurer is Nicolas Faith said in his C4 TV series Classic Trucks: “The the first northbound truck French were full of original ideas, most unsuccessful in the across the new Lambeth short term, but forming the basis of longer term success; the Bridge in 1932

English dreamy and anarchic, unwilling to translate their technical breakthroughs into anything as vulgar as commercial proit... the Germans pursuing precisely the sort of mechanical, orderly, engineering-driven path ideal for the industry.” Perhaps surprisingly, arguably the most progressive of all were the Swedes and the Swiss.

Armstrong Saurer, an intriguing but far from unique example, demonstrates just how far from technologically advanced British lorries of the 1930s were. The Swiss marque Saurer was expensive and reined, according to CV historian Nick Baldwin. They had been imported in small numbers during the 1920s and so impressed industrialist Sir WG Armstrong Whitworth of Vickers that he obtained the rights to UK production.

Advanced engineering

The Saurer-designed vehicles – mainly bonneted, although a cabover was made speciically for this market – were built at Scotswood, Newcastle upon Tyne. Dieselpowered with six-cylinder, direct-injection engines from sister concern Berna at a time when steam or petrol predominated, they offered extremely advanced engineering. A 1934 Samson eight-wheeler at the maximum legal 22 tons GVW boasted air brakes on all axles (British chassis usually had only three out of four) and an overdrive ’box. A pressed steel, rather than cast iron, rear bogie helped reduce weight. Patriotic model names sounded like a roster of Royal Naval battleships: Dynamic, Deiant, Diligent, Dauntless, Dominant, Durable and Sampson.

True, the Armstrong Saurer range never sold in great numbers, due to its higher than average prices and an economic depression. Production eventually ceased when Vickers switched to war work in 1939. However, customers loved what were for their day very much glamour trucks – the equivalent of a contemporary range-topping Scania.

Pickfords had used Saurers since 1907 and in 1925 found them cheaper than a Leyland, with the bonus of engine braking as standard. In 1934 they acquired two Sampson 3,300-gallon tankers, claimed to be the world’s largest. Risdon Semper, a famous leet delivering giant paper rolls to Fleet Street, ran an immaculate leet of 120hp, 6x4, bonneted Dominant chassis with latbeds and a four-speed ‘splitter’ gearbox. Their fortunate drivers considered themselves top of their profession.

Many UK Saurers ended up with showmen after the Second World War, prized because of their longevity. In the US they were marketed by an early incarnation of Mack Trucks.

Impressed by Mercedes

At the same time Mercedes was also making a positive impression on British irms. In 1930 McNamara – a major contractor to the Post Ofice, running many of its long distance trunking routes – bought a batch to gain diesel experience and even put a Mercedes lump into a Scammell to replace a petrol unit.

Occasionally seen in UK hauliers’ livery was the Mercedes NK56 six-wheeler conventional with distinctive set-back front axle to meet a short-lived quirk in weight regulations, running on balloon tyres when some wagons still sported solid boots at the rear. Such vehicles sold on quality and longevity rather than price.

Imported RHD Mercedes appeared here again in the late 1960s and quietly became increasingly popular during the 1970s while Volvo’s F series hogged the limelight and frightened the hell out of the UK’s partly-nationalised, horribly archaic lorry makers. Cawthorn and Sinclair were running sleeper-cab LPS1418 Mercedes under tilt trailers to France even as rivals dispatched hapless drivers across the water in day cab Atkinsons.

Among general haulage companies the apparently unbreakable Mercedes LP 1418 conventional unit became popular, paving the way for the legendary SK series.

Meanwhile, German-built air-cooled ‘Maggies’, sold by Magirus Deutz UK, were beginning to catch on and were particularly enjoyed by tipper operators.

Magirus was also involved in a little known joint venture at Winsford with assembler Seddon that was aimed at export markets. In 1971 a tilt-bodied Seddon 13-4 rigid regularly ran parts between the UK and Germany, powered by an air-cooled V6 Deutz engine.

Unlikely alliances

As UK lorry builders struggled to play catch-up partnership deals waxed and waned. Hitherto unlikely links were forged between us and Spain, with the 32-ton ‘Barreiros’ Dodge R38. In 1987 the Pegasso Troner became the (Daf cabbed) Seddon Atkinson Strato. Ford’s shot at the top slot used a Berliet cab on its Italian-designed Dutch-built (latterly Foden) Transcontinental model.

Lower down the weight range ERF ES rigids gained a cab from MAN’s Austrian conquest Steyr. Perhaps most unlikely of all was a hapless 1968 attempt by Atkinson to increase its deservedly tiny European market share by adopting an obsolete German Krupp steel sleeper cab, at least one such 32-ton example was registered in the UK.

As UK truck production slipped into terminal decline and Europe-wide products assumed total dominance, for a short period in the 1980s, 1990s and noughties bargain bin offers grabbed a share of the action with Roman (Romanian-made MAN) Turkish BMC, Czech Avia, and Spanish Ebro chassis enjoying variable degrees of success.

There has also been a signiicant number of US-built or inluenced trucks in the UK, but that’s another story... ■


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