Evening all,
I think that sammyopposite could be right, it looks like a Simca, with that big aerodynamic bodywork.
Fergie, the pictures that you post are a delight. Thank you for the time and effort that you take, they really bring back the France so many of us love!
Hereford 1971, that livery that the UK operation adopted really did the , (by the `80s), aging cab no favours…they should have stuck to our black with red pin stripes…that always looked great!
Fergie those military Berliets really deserve a brief comment…
That ugly looking 8 wheeled tractor, and what looks like a corrugated box van…well it a`int!
The concept was a Nuclear missile carrier, that could drive up…erect the missile launch pad, (the box van), fire said weapon, and then …bugger off…before the recipient could work out from whence it had come!
About 20 of these mass death delivering devices were created in the late `60s at the behest of General De Gaulle… project Albion…
The idea produced by Berliet and Latécoere was a transport module for the Nuclear Missile based on an 8x4 tractor unit, model TF 8x4 ET TRD 6 (VTE)…Vehicule Transporteur Érecteur. GVW was 75000kgs, powered by a MIS 645.50 14860cc 6 cylinder Turbo diesel, (145x150), 335 hp @2300 rpm. Transmission was via an Allinson Torquematic 6 speed and TC 550 tourque convertor semi auto box,to a triple reduction drive bogie. Road speed was in excess of 50kph.A similar transmission to that employed by Berliet in its Bourg en Bresse produced Dumper chassis.The coupling was for a 3.5in pin.
The missile carrier/erector was of a tri axle, (14500kg each capacity),on 1200x20 Michelin tyre equipment. Nett weight of the trailer was 8.3 tonnes, with a 43 tonne payload. Overall length was over 18 metres.
The missiles carried a 700kg weapon, with a range of 3000 kilometres.
But of course things changed in Europe, and these machines were recalled, one is certainly preserved, (and well worth looking at if you have the chance).
Now the R serie Renault was the ultimate version of the TRH as a Tank Transporter, Today the French Military have both Renault Premium, and Sisu, (with a Premium cab…just to confuse), as Tank Transporters. But the TRH 350TS @82 tonnes was the first cross over from code/hors code, giving a vehicle with its MIVS 08.35.30. 14888 cc V8 engine a rapid, (66kph), heavy tractor unit.
There had been a prototype TR380 @360 hp, with a 13 speed Fuller, but the military procurement chose the standard offering for its AMX 30 tanks. Fascinating history to French Tank Transporters, and the move from US sourced equipment, for another day I think!
But me, sadly, I would rather have driven that Willeme Cottard Horizon cab LD, even with its 190 hp 518 13 litre engine, of TSP…those Willeme`s really had a presence…just like my last glass of Bollinger, which awaits me…
Cheerio for now.
