Who here has ever heard of Sonacome?
Apparently, this was a Algerian marque that was built under Berliet license. And they used Deutz engines.
Courtesy of Richard Stanier.
Two were made, fitted with a 250 hp 18-litre straight-8, and one was renovated by Michelin and is now preserved.
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Sonacome still exists:
They use various components coming from different manufacturers. A Berliet-cabbed truck can be powered by a Deutz air-cooled V8…
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And here was me thinking the 8LXB was a thing.
I drove for a week a MB 1936 artic, powered by a 18-litre V10. Fully loaded (38 tonnes GW) with rubble, I once started on 5th speed (8-speed ZF gearbox) without stalling the engine…
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That was one of the wonderful benefits of older tech big engines: they were so tolerant, as were the beefed up clutches and 'boxes that went with the territory! The biggest engine I used was a much later Merc than yours, an 1850 (500) I drove to Morocco for someone in hospital. I hated the EPS, of course, but the engine was something else in the Spanish mountains; nothing spectacular in the boy-racer sense, but it really dug in on the hills: a real up-hill-and-down-dale machine.
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Wrong thread.
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Too fast, but nevertheless interesting.
Definitely a Renault.
A few pictures taken c 1960 at the petrol station of Ste-Cécile d’Andorge on the Nationale 106 between Alès and Florac.
Good pictures.
Several years back now, but we had a regular delivery in Ales, and that drop was often put on after drops around Clermont Ferrand, so the RN 106 was the way to go.
A beautiful road for motorcycles in the summer, not so nice in an artic in the winter, but little chance of dozing off from boredom.
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I remember doing that road some 20 years ago, but no memory if the place was still open. Anyway, here are a few more old pictures, and a screenshot showing it nowadays.
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