Here’s something a bit different: An all-German car carrier, although undoubtedly the carrier trailer and truck’s carrier structure were built in the US. This load of fine Porsches and Audis is being hauled by a Magirus tractor. If the cab looks familiar, it should, as it was probably the most widely used European cab for some 25 years, at four European truck companies, and in the US by Mack.
This cab was developed for and by the “Club of Four”, which was initially an alliance of Saviem, Volvo, DAF and Magirus-Deutz, the oldest truck maker in the world. Cabs are typically the most cost-intensive aspect of truck manufacturing, so there’s a very long history of cab sharing. These cabs were developed in France to be used in a wide range of mid-sized truck. Volvo was an enthusiastic early user, on their F4 and F6 line, starting in 1975.
Saviem, which was later absorbed by Renault, also used them, including conventional versions.
After Renault bought into Mack, the cab came to the US in the new Mack Midliner. These trucks were built by Renault in France.
The Magirus-Deutz connection is a bit more complicated, as IVECO bought Magirus-Deutz in 1975, so they inherited the cab as part of that acquisition. It was sold with various badges, as a Magirus-Deutz, Magirus-Iveco, and just Magirus, as the one hauling the cars at the top.
I recognize all these trucks from my childhood and I never noticed it’s the same cab. I’m shocked at child-me’s lack of observational skills.
French die cast manufacturer Majorette, offered several versions with the Saviem cab in North America. As a kid, I collected the Pepsi truck, and a gasoline truck version.
Daniel, that’s a Saviem “cabine 860”, the heavy-duty SM-series, dating back to the late sixties. That cab was also used by MAN (F7/F8/F9).
Thank you for your expertise Johannes. I thought some cab details, including size, didn’t look consistent.
There was a Romanian or Hungarian heavy truck that used that cab as well, but I can’t remember the name offhand.
Correct Joe, both Rába from Hungary and Roman from Romania used it too.
A guy I knew in Aussie was an OD with a 8 wheel MAN flat deck with that cab, it was quite a good truck on the road working more than it was off the road.
MAN (formerly known as M.A.N. Diesel) is one of those truck makers with a long history of building highly capable, robust on-/off road chassis (4×4, 6×6 and later also 8×8). Just like Mercedes-Benz, Magirus-Deutz (now Iveco) and Tatra.
Here’s a classic 8×8 with the day cab of that series.
Sweet Magirus! Famous for their air cooled engines, just like Porsche (back then).
Fast forward to the 21st century, the unofficial Club of Five-cab: Renault D (pictured), Volvo FL, DAF LF, Kenworth K270/370, Peterbilt 220.
I know Paccar is now a truly a global company, but as a former Peterbilt employee in the seventies and early eighties it’s hard to imagine a Peterbilt and Renault sharing badge engineering. Of course, in those days, even though we shared a corporate parent, Kenworth was a huge rival, although considered inferior. But Ren-alt … that would have been unheard of. I’m glad all that has evolved.
The cab started as a joint Renault-DAF project. These were the two truck makers that used the cab first, back in 2000 (Renault) and 2001 (DAF). DAF is a Paccar company and Volvo bought Renault’s heavy truck division, so there you go.
Those Magirus cabovers were briefly sold in the US circa 1980 along with some large Iveco vans that were popular for newspaper delivery.
Do the sv mirrors pivot both fore and aft, on the 911 Targa? It hurts to look at it, like a backhand that got bent around to meet a forearm.
The Porsches and Audis together make sense. They were sold through the same dealers at the time. Is that a Jetta at the back of the lower deck? VW and Audi were the same company, but I’m surprised they risked the optics of sharing trucks back when they sold the same cars as VWs and Audis, even if there aren’t any Audi 4000s or VW Quantums in the picture.
Once again, gents you make an old former truck salesman very happy with all of this information. I surf the web for trucks from other countries but, for the most part, the details are not included. Cab sharing was or is still in use in The U.S. Dodge cabs were used by FWD for many years. International sold its cabs to other truck manufacturers, such as Diamond-T.
I drove many thousands of miles in Mack Midliners. They were very reliable. I found that the biggest weakness in them was the windsheild. I cracked two of them just from hitting New England pot holes, (bomb craters). Several more cracked very easily, one from swatting a Hornet with a rolled up newspaper. True!