• Two weeks ago Commercial Motor lost a good friend
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with the premature death of Frank Allen who ran Mercedes-Benz UK's truck demonstration fleet at Wentworth Park.
The terror of novice roadtesters, Frank's love of the business, and for the German marque in particular, was well-known throughout the industry and his abscence from the roadtest scene was all the more noticable recently when CM took to the road in the
latest 1733 test tractor. Somehow it wasn't the same without him.
Never one to tolerate fools gladly, Frank could be a tartar in the cab and his spontaneous dry humour, (at times directed at his German masters) could soon change to a frown if he thought that a journalist wasn't trying hard enough.
His legend and reputation preceded him when it came to roadtesting, and while we frequently pulled his leg about the stick he supposedly kept to rap daydreamers over the knuckles with — should they dare to change gear at the wrong time — Frank was always the first to agree if something wasn't right with the product.
We'll miss him sitting alongside us, running over the harder sections of the A68, with his eye watching the flow meter readout like a hawk and the calming (and definitely not to be ignored) words of "It's all right, she'll pull it in that, don't change".
But most of all we'll simply miss Frank.