I worked for National Carriers on a 32 tonner, but occasionally (well about twice) I took a truck out like the Ford in your picture, but it was a Leyland…..I think Terrier?
I remember being sat at lights in Glasgow hunched up behind the wheel of this thing looking like a deformed goblin in a thick jacket and hat cos the heater was useless….
This bloody great Transcontinental show piece motor pulled along side me which was about 3x the height of this thing, I looked up and in the passenger seat was the driver’s girlfriend looking down at me and laughing .
One of the very few wagons, Bristols, of my era on the road, which I have never been inside. Never having worked for BRS I have never had such a spy either, what did it record, GOM, just movement or what?
When I got back from Oz in the early ‘70s I went for a job at BRS Nottingham. The man asked me how I would get from there to Manchester and, for some reason, because I had lived there and travelled frequently with my parents to the grandparents later, I paused to have a think for a few moments and I realised I had blown it.
Later, running a night trunk for Bill Andrew to Kelloggs, Trafford Park, I no longer had to think about it.
I was on flickr just now and came across this by “ekawrecker”
I won’t go into the FIAT/ UNIC thing cos I don’t know enough about it (others do), but what caught my attention was “17litre V8” and I thought well that can’t be right… Anyway, 10 minutes of mucking about on the interwebs later:
FIAT 170 NT - 17.2litre n/a V8, 325bhp @ 2400rpm, 863lb-ft @1200. Given this is mid-70s and you could spec a 13sp Fuller, it would’ve been a rocket ship. That engine was the basis for the big V8s in Iveco Turbostars etc.
They make a very nice noise too:
From what I’ve read, many Italian-registered 170NTs were specc’d as RHD because it gave the driver a better view up and down the switchback passes, or so it’s said.
He’s been quiet for a few days, I suspect he’s busy preparing for his seasonal employment stint as the star attraction in Santa’s Grotto.
I’m missing my regular ‘fix’ of his bizarre ramblings.
Come back CF, all is forgiven.
Yes the 17 litre V8 Fiat engine was what they used in the Turbostar and you are correct they were very good.13 speed Fuller and 480 bhp was what ours had but to be fair the 360 bhp Turbostars weren’t bad either.I think they were a 13 litre straight six most of ours had the 13 speed Fuller but a couple of twin splitters and even a knock over 16 speed ZF synchro arrived
My Eurostar had that same 14-ltr straight-six engine developed from the Turbostar and Fiats before that. It was the best part of the truck: a reliable pretty indestructible piece of kit attached to the equally indestructible Eaton Twin-splitter (there’s a chap on here who’ll educate you about those to a senior level ). Shame really about the build-quality of the rest of the ship! It still got me to Doha and back.
My Dad told me a story years ago about one of these. Him and a mate had cadged a lift from a lorry driver. They were keen cyclists and had been on some road trip but needed a break I guess. The only condition of the lift was that whenever he stopped for an “extended break” they had to keep shaking it to give the impression that the truck was moving. At the time I thought he was yanking my chain but maybe wasn’t.
He may have gone north chasing a bit of decent distance, international work. Let’s hope the sleigh doesn’t have a 15 speed RoadRanger, or there’s going to be a lot of disappointed kids.
I gather that the later Turbostars were inline 6s, presumably because Fiat/ IVECO developed them to make the same or better bhp as the old V8 and better torque. I just want a 17.2litre V8 diesel, if you know what I mean
On Lambert’s we had a recording device mounted on the back of the cab wall.
It was a 7 day wax paper disc (like a tacho chart) and it was scribed on by a stylus on a pendulum. Housed in a circular grey-painted metal case with a small clock visible.
The idea was to stop bent running…or to check that you were working, when you said you were…
Drivers had to wind uo the clockwork each week.
Stories of unscrewing the machine and someone’s Missus shaking it while he had an hours brekkie at home. An hour’s vigorous activity after pub closing hours when on a night out needed explaining!
There would be a spiral trace on the card, one rev per 24hrs, and it would be narrow when at rest and wide when the pendulum was moving
). Shame really about the build-quality of the rest of the ship! It still got me to Doha and back.