Iveco Turbo Star, blast from the past

These trucks were so thirsty, probably averaged 7 mpg, I knew an owner driver on for British International and he was always running out fuel in one or on fumes to get to the fuel station.

Great motor, and well ahead of it’s time.
Elec mirrors,.electric blinds, wipers on mirrrors etc,.and a good big twin bunk sleeper cab.

I had a demo for about 3 months, after buying a Ford
‘kin .Cargo :roll_eyes: from same dralership..(mate was a salesman.:grinning_face_with_smiling_eyes:)
I often wished I’d bought that as an ex demo instead of the new Cargo, but I went for fuel figures rather than ‘Poser kudos’’ value…
Very out of character for me btw.:joy:

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They were definitely way ahead of their time, pulled like a train, even fully freighted the load would feel like you were pulling an empty trailer.

Did you only get the V8? They could be horrendously thirsty, if you drove them like you hate them, but quite economical if the loud pedal was used judiciously. We had one when I was doing heavy haulage, it would outpull my Mack Superliner. The boss reckoned he could tell what sort of mood the driver was in by looking at the fuel card status.
I never drove that one, but I drove a Cummins powered version, I don’t recall anything good or bad that stood out, so it must have been ok.

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My work colleague at the Iveco V8, the fuel it used was enormous, he was always short of money and getting drivers to give him fuel money, he never paid them back.
The unit was a bright orange one.

Yeah, orange ones were the worst for economy, white ones were much better. :wink:

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He had the double twin stacked exhaust pipes at the back of the cab,incredible sound.

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Well, back in the mid-90s, I drove this one for a few weeks. It was a 1989 480 bhp engined and certainly one of my best trucks. Its average consumption was 39 litres/ 100 kms, which makes approx 7.2 mpg. Nothing excessive for its time.

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What a beauty.

I drove G372 JCP a V8 480 Tubostar now and then and it pulled very well.Fully loaded ( 38 ton ) up windy hill it dropped half a gear near the top . It was on Italy for Du Forest Manchester and i would load it for the regular driver when he was off.

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They definitely pulled well, they don’t make them like that anymore,drivers now are not allowed to change a light bulb and have to call out a mechanic.

I used to change my own unit and trailer tyres by carrying all the kit of bottle jacks and a scaffolding pole to get the rusted wheel nuts off.

We had 6 Turbostars 3 with tag axles and 3 4x2s and a i think 6/7 TEC cabs . The 360s were a great engine they all had 13 speed Fullers apart from 1 ZF 16 speed and 1 Twin Splitter.They all had the same problem , they fell apart.Engines were bullet proof the build quality was terrible.They were worked very hard but everything fell off them

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Probably the rust if the factories were near the sea in Italy to make them fall apart.

Don’t see these anymore, if you got out for a wee in the night you would forget there’s no step and fall out.



They did rust but it was more cab trim interior dropping off wedging the windows up to stop them falling down etc

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And the electrics failed eventually with gremlins setting in as they aged.

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We had 2 Renaults in the same fleet as the Ivecos.A R340 and a R365. The bloke who got the 480 Turbostar swapped it for the R365. I think the bloke in France sticking the badges on just put what was at hand because the 340 we had was better than the 365.The cabs eete superb though

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I drove one to Gibraltar and back, a decent and comfortable motor, I drove a Renault Premium, not ideal for a tall person and you have to get out of the cab to get dressed.

The Volvo FL 10 were nicknamed Wendy Houses, the cab was small but a wonderful wagon to drive and pulled well.


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The R 365 I had on Gib round trips.

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