The sound of the V8.
youtube.com/watch?v=qXdR5yxNKUY
michel:
The sound of the V8.
youtube.com/watch?v=qXdR5yxNKUY
Nice old lorry fitted with the Saviem GV 350 synchromesh 10 speed gearbox…and the wonderful hub reduction axle!
Cheerio for now.
Saviem JL20 with150 hp Somua engine , 10 gears with a body for vegetables and fruits transport.The lorry was used between South of France and “Les Halles” in Paris. Registration date is 1959.
Hi Saviem.
I stumbled on this thread and thought you would be here. I rather agree with you regarding the guy with the duff Saviem. As a demo driver for RTB for a couple of years, I wish I had a quid for every driver who slagged the product. Every driver who had a Scania (back breaker) or F10 (Crap brown trim) would tell me the Renault was crap but not one could actually say why. Up until I started for RTB, I had driven the Scanias and Volvos as well as a handful of uk trucks. I had also driven the Saviem units that whistled their arrival. I remember Vic Hollinghurst of Glossop operating one that his son Dave drove. Went like a train. Dave would regularly transit abroad with Oggy and Duggy on board too. Dave ended up as a salesman at RTB Manchester. I also agree that staff at this time would bend over backwards to help any owner of a Saviem/Berliet/Renault product. I remember with fondness Barry Gibson and Paul Clark. I used a brand new JWQ tractor unit in the Lord Mayor’s Show and have happy memories of Pete Mollart working at the stores at Trafford Park. There was a French guy who worked at Manchester and ran the technical department. It wasn’t you was it. Your knowledge of the product, specific vehicles, dealers and customers leads me to think maybe not, but I am seriously impressed with your knowledge of the subject. On the Berliet thread, I remember the GBH tipper arriving at Manchester and Dave Douglas, Dave Hollinghurst and myself taking it over to the Tilcon Quarry at Dove Holes to show it off. Whilst it didn’t perform as we would have like, we soon popped it onto a weighbridge to find it was grossing just under 50 tonnes!! We were pleased after that.
I have already voiced my opinion on another site about how the product was marketed, but I still maintain that the Renault product is a good one. After leaving Renault, I used a Volvo F12 to pull a low loader for a while until a 340 turboliner turned up. One trip in the turbo liner and the gear was swapped over. No more rattles, no more bad back, no more gear all over the cab. OK the blue trim was hard to keep clean, but that was the only moan I had until my boss sold it to an owner driver who chopped a clapped out 111 in for it and I was demoted yet again. Had to staple my bottom lip up for a couple of weeks.
No doubt you will be settled in for the night with a nice bottle of Bollinger, me…cup of tea thank you.
Big Dorris’s Dad.
Seldom drawbar PS 30 in preservation.
In the 60 th, Saviem launched the JL middle range with ‘Fulgur’ engines 4 and 6 cylinders.
Here a presrved JL 23/6.
Was there such a make of truck?My brain being totally useless now tells me there was and they had a cab like a MAN.
Saviem did exist. Not exactly sure on the politics but Renault had a lot of involvement.
They did indeed use the MAN cab as well as the ‘Group of Four’ cab, more popularly seen on the Volvo F6 & F7.
Try Googling Saviem trucks - there is plenty of info out there.
Indeed. A famous old make later taken over by Renault along with Berliet. They did share the MAN cab but the gear change lever was on the steering column and the linkage used to get really loose causing you sometimes to trap your fingers against the dashboard. 
saviem trucks
some good pics on this site
http://www.fierdetreroutier.com/versions/eng/accueil_eng.php
just click truck pics icon and saviem are in the right hand column
folks: check this photo out.
who remembers Thomasons?
they had a whole fleet of Saviems and Berliets. i used to see um regularly at Dover and Smithfield meat markets…now theres another load of photos for another topic!!! 
I’m sure there were some Saviem vans in the italian job. I think the bullian van was and i’ve got a feeling their minibus was as well
Although I could be wrong
I’ve not seen Thomasons since the early 90’s when they were using Scanias . They were also Saviem service agents .The French built the cab and I believe they used “old generation” MAN engines although Saviem were due to switch to Rolls-Royce engines for the 80’s but the Berliet link up which may have been forced by the French Government clearly ended that.
I ran a Saviem which I bought from a scrap yard in Doncaster. It had been run on the Burtons job out of Leeds before doing 7 or 8 trips to Athens. 
This one had a baby Transcontinental cab and a 9 speed Eaton box. Just looked in my old passport and it was on an S plate.
I do remember some with the old Roman / MAN cabs too
A Sav with a Transcon cab 
You sure it wasn’t a Berliet that someone had switched badges on 
S’pose you are, since it was yours, but never saw one of those.
Spardo:
A Sav with a Transcon cabYou sure it wasn’t a Berliet that someone had switched badges on
S’pose you are, since it was yours, but never saw one of those.
Definately a Saviem but wasnt that the time that they were all married to Renault
Here you are, a website that answers all your questions Francaise Poids Lourds.
renaultoloog.nl/trucks-english.htm
David look at this link and Im sure mine was the PX28 in the 1978 to 1989 section
Fascinating Malc, you learn something new every day.
Also it seems that Saviem was never an independant entity but the result of an amalgamation. Didn’t know that either.
But how ugly can you get, those receding forehead 1940s models? Ugh!
Mind you quite aerodynamic I suppose but hardly necessary at the speeds they probably attained. Puts me in mind of the early DAFs that were imported to UK, Ã la Ackworth Transport.
Yes, its a very interesting site that takes you through the ages.
Im not sure about my truck cos it certainly never went like a 280 and was probably nearer 180 
But hey, it was the first truck that took me to Athens and it looked like a Transcon