whisperingsmith:
I think it was around late 1975 - paid £12,000 to John Fishwick to buy his V10 - 320 BHP 1932 Merc - he had managed to import it against all odds the & only one in the country at the time - Probab;y 10 or so came in after on special importLHD, 14.99l Litre -V10 - 320 BHP - with the big walkthrough LPS cab - awesome motor (we lived in it Me Mother & young son)
It was M reg 1974 - I reckon the last good Merc to die for - None of those since have come anywhere near &* shows how long ago you could buy a really great truck that wasn’t a noisy V8 with a cramped Swedish cab that dropped penny valves for fun
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While Swedish lorry enthusiasts will protest that any teething troubles suffered by their V8s were quickly cured, reading the contemporary press indicates that German engineering was ahead overall, in the early 1970s at least. Turbocharging had only broken into commercial vehicles a decade before the introduction of the Merc/MAN V10 and Scania DS14. For reliability/durability, the sensible money had to be on the naturally aspirated German engine. I would like to see more of them on the preservation scene.