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Centurions – Missing in Action….
A little while back the owner of #69 and the owner of #27 and myself (#35 or #89 or #90!) had an early morning get together at the Gathering of the Griffin for a full sit down update on where we are with tracking all 100 original Scania Centurions on, The Centurion List. Now the list itself is getting better and better and the information on all the trucks is growing all the time especially with things like the Scania Centurion trucks page on Faceache. Bearing in mind that I for one was a little jaded, the list run through took a couple of hours, although this could have been due to Neil Jarrold’s interruptions I’m not sure, anyway I will put up the updated list when I can remember how to publish it on here!
Having gone through the list we then got onto what could possible described as “the rumours” bit. A load of info we have but all pretty inconclusive so the best thing is to share it with you and hopefully once again you can fill in some of the blanks and knock some of the useless bits on the head.
Not sure how well you can see that but I hope you can. The Peter Roff truck is a very interesting case of Chinese whispers. We have a good idea of the story behind it but we would very much like to hear it from one of you that perhaps knew the Roff fleet or even drove for him at the time. The rest of the lines on the table (not those type!) are a rumour or unsubstantiated fact each, i.e. each line should refer to one truck. Please leave your feedback below as a comment or email me; ben@truckblog.co.uk. I think the Millar Transport truck MDZ 8140 is not a Centurion. I had a fairly good font of Irish knowledge say it wasn’t on the fleet and a second person commented that reg was on a BMW?! All this info you are giving will hopefully end up in a book all about the 100, so anything you can contribute is for the greater good of 3 series Scania lovers, any genuine info on any of the 100 trucks could be of use for that matter At some point I will need to gather high quality photos of each truck, now that will be a challenge!
Click on the link to see the updated Centurion list – Scania Centurion List
(Updated 10/01/2015)
TB Readers Best UK Show 2014
I thought this year I would put it to you readers, to see what was your favourite UK (that’s in the UK) truck show that you attended. I gave a list of options and also the “Other” option where you could name your own show if required. It is a little worrying that a couple of you put Truckstar Festival, Assen, Netherlands, Europe as your best UK truck show but I guess those votes may have been cast by fans of twat sat nav who haven’t realised there is a sea between us and the Netherlands. As with all votes not many took part but there were over 100 participants which gave a good average. The results for best UK truck show in 2014 were as follows;
1st Place: Retro Truck Show @ Gaydon (74% votes)
2nd Place: Truckfest Peterborough (8% votes)
3rd Place: Peak Truck Show Uttoxeter (6% votes)
I think it’s fair to say in this particular Poll the Retro Truck Show is a run away winner. I don’t know if it’s just the readers on here or what but even so 74% of votes to just 8% for 2nd place is what some would call a landslide victory! For me the Retro Show was a great show to visit. All the trucks of my childhood, Scania 2 and 3 series, Volvo F’s, ERF’s what more could you want. A family BBQ type atmosphere? Check. No stupid irrelevant market stalls? Check. People just talking trucks and drinking beer? Check. A few brand new trucks parked next to their ancestors so you can compare and contrast? Check. What more could you want? Classic Amercian trucks?? Check. Retro trucks from the Continent? Check. The list is endless. Hopefully the 2015 show will be just as good if not better, with a couple of new top sponsors I would expect the show to be near the top of next years Poll too. The photo above and the amazing line up below are just a couple of examples of the fine trucks on show at the Retro Truck Show held in September.
Not only are there all types of truck from the UK but there is an increasing presence from the continent. It seems that our European friends are just as keen to preserve the trucks from the golden years as we are. For me there were 2 German trucks and a Belgian that caught my eye in particular this year. A Scania 141 in full Middle East spec including Arabic writing on the front and chunky grip desert tyres. This truck has the look, although it is clean it’s not over polished or tyre foamed, giving it that “just got back to the yard” look.
The other German was a big 3 axle MAN 20.361 with a silo trailer. The trailer looked like it might have done a job to pay for its trip to the show, even so the truck was just what retro trucking is all about. Well preserved, could still earn a penny or two, no shiny wheels, just an everyday workhorse that has been lived and restored by a truck lover like all of us!
Finally the Volvo F12 Globetrotter. A truck that has been there and done it in all cases and liked by most if not loved. I remember seeing trucks like this on the motorway when I was a young’un, the yellow headlights and a Les Routiers sticker were always a true sign of a continental trucker! However you look at these trucks there will be a few that bring back happy memories I’m sure. The premiss of the show is all trucks manufactured between 1960 and 2000, with special entries to anything newer being arranged by the show organisers. A worthy winner of best show for 2014 and I look forward to going again this year. Definitely a fun show with something for everyone.
If your running a truck show in 2015 or you know of one that others need to know about, then please send me a flyer in .jpg or .pdf format and I’ll add it to the new “Truck Shows 2015” section on the Truckblog website. The more I’m sent the more shows we’ll all know about which can only be a good thing. It seems to me that smaller higher quality shows organised by truck people for truck people are becoming much more appealing that the huge truck festivals organised by promotional companies to make them money.
My Best Truck of 2014
For me this is the best truck I have seen in 2014. It might not be the newest, it might not be most practical for most of Europe and it certainly won’t be everyones taste but for me, spot on.
If you live in the UK and haven’t been to one I strongly advise that you make 2015 your first trip to a European truck show, the standard of trucks is amazing. I can’t deny that the trucks here in the UK are getting better and better but the Europeans just seem to have it right, they all look good. To me the best trucks have always been out of reach of what I could afford or achieve and the T560 is no different. We all joke about winning the lottery but a Tcab would be very close to the top of my list. It’s blue, it’s got two sets of pipes, it’s got a subtle custom interior and enough lights to make it look good but not over the top. As with anything I would make a few subtle changes as I’d want to put my mark on it.
2014 has seen a big rise in the blogs popularity through all mediums, the Facebook page, twitter and the good old fashioned http://www.truckblog.co.uk website. I’m not going to link to any of those this time round as I’m sure you all could do with a break from the ruthless links and plugs for the blog. I have no idea where the blog will be in another 12 months, hopefully you’ll all still send me stuff, photos, info and the odd piece of trucking memorabilia to decorate TBHQ and I’ll keep bugging the TV companies in the vague hope they’ll see that we need Truckblog TV!
Hopefully I’ll be visiting, Truckfest Peterborough, Crowfield Truck Rally, Gathering of the Griffin, Retro Truck Show at Gaydon, more than likely (and hopefully) Truckstar Festival at Assen as my foreign trip, although I have heard on the grapevine that there is quite a convoy of English motors heading to the International Trucker & Country Show held at Interlaken, CH. I have always wanted to go James?? Finally if the offer is still there then I might just make it to Belfast too.
Anyway thank you for following and thank you for making the blog what it is, without your contributions I’m sure you’d all be bored silly of 143’s, MAN TGL LX’s and Mercedes-Benz photos! As we all do secretly say now and again Keep on Trucking!
Vote: Best UK Truck Show 2014
Please vote for the best show you have been to in the UK or Ireland this year. The more votes the better, so please feel free to share the poll on your Facebooks, Twitter-spheres or whatever else you have. The more votes we get the better idea we’ll have of the type of show your all enjoying. If you want to nominate another show, put other and enter the name yourself. Get voting!!
This Week in Trucks
New MAN on the block!
A few posts ago I put up Steve Marsh’s last trip out in his old faithful GB05 STE, his ageing MAN TGL 12.210 tilt that has served him well, but as with all ageing European cruisers, GB05 had to be replaced to take advantage of lower toll prices and meet higher emissions standards that are required across the EU and beyond. Read the last post (ha ha) by clicking HERE.
Above you will see a couple of photos of the new motor GB14 STE killing time on a Saturday afternoon in Hull waiting for the Hull – Europoort boat. The new ride is once again a cracking little Tonka from the stables of MAN, it’s a TGL 12.250 this time. A bit more horse power, a Euro 6, 250hp engine attached to a KUDA high roof conversion. Marshy opts for the higher KUDA roof over factory fit LX cab from MAN as the KUDA option gives a little more headroom and also you have to say it does look the part being that bit higher. The truck is fitted with a Euroliner style rigid body fitted with a sliding roof and slash proof curtains and is one of only a handful of rigids registered in the UK with full TIR certification. Now don’t ask Marshy about the body build and the MAN dealers involved in this complete farce of a build, for let’s just say it took a year from order to handover and over 2 weeks for a PDI and tacho calibration, dealer standards MAN UK?? Duty of care?? Disgraceful. Another story for another day I think. Anyway so far so good and it would appear Marshy has ended up with another little stunner, a real head turner I think. If you see it on the road try and send me a photo, as yet I’ve not seen it in the flesh although my time will come……sooner rather than later I hope!
So the first trip to mainland Europe started with a Saturday load up in Hull and a Saturday night boat to Europoort courtesy of P&O Ferries. I’m told that it’s no longer a party boat on a Saturday night! Here’s the rest of the first trip;
Sunday: Drove to destination near Koblenz. Waiting at Venlo border before crossing into Germany at 10pm Sunday evening.
Monday: Tip Koblenz and drive to Paris for reload.
Tuesday: Load Paris & Oostende, then drive to destination near Bournemouth for 1st drop.
Wednesday: Tip goods from Oostende in Bournemouth and goods from Paris in Stockport. Through Lymm truckwash then a quick Bury – Warrington load.
Photo above unloading near Koblenz with tailift. Photo below was taken somewhere in France while taking a tacho break on the way to Paris.
It looks as though GB14 has carried on where GB05 left off and is already getting to grips with life in the world of international light haulage and express deliveries. I know there has been a trip across the Irish Sea for GB14 too, another very regular destination for Steve Marsh Express over the last year. I’m hoping as time goes by that GB14 will feature on the blog as much as GB05 and that the truck will find itself and it’s pilot, Mr Marsh, ticking off European countries and islands month after month much like before. If you see Marshy give him a hoot and a wave and try to get a photo in between. I’d love to see your photos of the little MAN as would Marshy.
Christmas Gift Idea
Something for your Christmas list….. A perfectly timed release for this years festive season, is this own account Autobiography of an Owner Driver from Southampton by the name of Chris Nicholls. I got this on email from Chris over the weekend;
“For 23yrs between the late seventies and the early nineties I was an owner-driver working out of Southampton and traveling both UK and Europe. I have spent the last 2 yrs writing about my experiences in a book entitled THERE AND BACK A JOURNEY AROUND MY LIFE. This went live on Amazon 48hrs ago. Tonight I have been informed its 76th in its catagory of about 160, FOUR places above JAMES MAY. If there any lads out there stuck on a loading bay or having a night out in some cold lay-by and require a good laugh, this book could be the answer.”
The book is currently available for downloading as an e-book onto your Kindle, if your cool enough that is! Click HERE. If your like me you’ll have to wait til mid December and buy it in paper book format. I for one have put it on my list from the rotund man in the red suit, so hopefully if I can behave for a little longer, I might just get my copy for Turkey Christmas day.
Volvo FH V Koenigsegg
Volvo Trucks marketing have done it again!! A super bit of Swedish marketing along with the one of the best drivers in the UK, Mr Tiff Needell. This time Tiff is taking an FH 540 around a Swedish race track and having rather a lot of fun in the process. The only thing about the video is that lucky Tiff gets to drive the big Volvo in a derestricted state, something that all (most!?) drivers can only dream about these days. Have a little read of the press release below. The idea behind the crazy Needell-ness is to promote Volvo truck’s new dual clutch gearbox, it does look very smooth!!
An eight-tonne Volvo FH against one of the world’s fastest cars – a Koenigsegg One:1. This is the scenario in Volvo’s new YouTube film, ‘Volvo Trucks v Koenigsegg’. The aim is to put the new I-Shift Dual Clutch gearbox – based on a technique used in sports cars – to the ultimate test.
In the film a Volvo FH comes up against a Koenigsegg One:1, with as much horsepower as weight kilos (1360), making it the world’s first mega-car. In order to stand a fair chance, the Koenigsegg received a handicap which means that it drove two laps of the Knutstorp race track in southern Sweden, whereas the Volvo FH tractor unit only drove one lap. Despite this, the conclusion is still unpredictable. The purpose of the race is to put the new Volvo I-Shift Dual Clutch gearbox to the ultimate test.
“I-Shift Dual Clutch has a dual-clutch, which is quite unique in the heavy vehicles market. However, similar technology is already in sports cars. Therefore, this was the perfect challenge,” said Jeff Bird, Press Test Director at Volvo Trucks. The similarities between the Volvo FH truck with I-Shift Dual Clutch and sports cars include includes a driveability that comes with seamless gear shifting and this is no more evident than at this circuit, which is known for its hilly terrain and demanding turns.
“It may sound like a different environment for a heavy truck, but the fact is that – thanks to its dual-clutch – I-Shift Dual Clutch is most useful in conditions that require a lot of shifting. The gearbox’s seamless shifts improve driveability tremendously,” said Jeff Bird.
Behind the steering wheel of the Volvo FH is the experienced motor racing personality Tiff Needell. Without revealing the results, Tiff – who had never raced in a truck before – admits that he was impressed by the performance of the vehicle.
“I-Shift Dual Clutch is absolutely incredible. It is particularly noticeable on slopes, the truck does not hold back – it just flows smoothly, without the gear changes being felt. When you brake, it switches down very softly and comfortably. The truck definitely has the heart of a sports car,” says Tiff Needell.
Volvo Trucks’ new dual-clutch gearbox was launched in Europe last June and is available on Volvo FH with Euro-6 D13 engines at 460hp, 500hp and 540hp ratings.
Vintage Vehicle Auction – 1st November
A little short notice but there is a decent looking Vintage vehicle auction coming up this weekend. Saturday 1st November at Donnington Park in Leicestershire. The auction has a number of vintage vans and trucks, all of which appear to be in very good condition. The auction is being held by auctioneers Thimbleby & Shorland and if you want to see the catalogue then click HERE.
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