Evening all, this thread is nicely motoring along I see!!
Just dieseled up my John Deere, what a machine with that engine, but in its Detroit Diesel 60 form is it as “thirsty” as my five girls■■? Never ever could complain about the power,(or the exhaust note), but now that “claret” is the price of Lager Beer,…no I still would not swop them!!
[ZB]s point about the “other” V8s, I think that bma, and nmm, have answered , the overall package in the Scania product, driver enviroment in particular, and ease of repair on the V8, outshone the others. But as a “rorty torty, get up and go” engine the Fiat/Unic design beats everything else hands down!!! Pity about the “cycle parts”.
I remember driving a Fiat V8 owned by a Turin based owner driver, who had just ordered a 356 Renault, (Berliet), in Le Centaur specification. Where the Berliet design was “soft” in its application of power, and you could easily mistake just how fast you were going, and what progress you were making, that Fiat…with 13speeds that slipped through with hardly a thought, like riding a screaming Japanese two stroke motorcycle!! And never even regarded the (even by Italy`s standards), illegal payload, (with a similar fuel consumption to the Japanese two stroke). But she sold, (thank goodness), to a new Sicilian home, where surely the sunshine would arrest the inevitable voracious appetite of the “tin worm”.
Now the MAN V8s, that we had in the Saviems. Good on fuel, made a nice noise, and in fairness were a powerful piece of (well designed ) engineering, back in the early 70s . I remember at one “heavy” post lunch product meeeting at Quai Galleni, with true Black Country lack of tact, in my best “Norman accented” French, describing the performance as “lardy arsed”, and being somewhat bemused at the blank facial expressions around me! Some two years later, a similar product meeting, but in the sunny offices at the former Berliet plant at Venissieux, the speaker, a senior product engineer, with a totally straight face, refered to the “old” Saviem MAN V8, as “lardy arsed”, and everybody applauded!!! My sole contribution to French verbal culture!!
Mark, (nmm) is right, contrary to popular myth, US operators were “mean” on power for many years. I remember Georgia “Doubles” pulled by 210hp ■■■■■■■■ Texas operators with KW ,short BBCs, on vans at 200/250hp in the late 70s, and even Montana “Bull Haulers”, rolling behind 250hp, (but with lots of gears), those “Possum Bellied” trailers carried some, (fragrant) weight!!
When I recall my own Scanias, on both Contract Hire, and Short Term rental, a mix of R143, (only ever one)!! R112s, P113s, and R113 360s, P92s and 93s, in all forms, without going back into the old records, the one statistic that always sticks in my mind , is that on Daily Rental, the Scanias, (and the short term motors were only ever P cabs), ran at a truly astonishing 98% utilisation.
So bma is right, (if I paraphrase), if its a Scania its great, if its a V8 ITS A BONUS!!!
Iwill away to my supper, (cold Salmon Trout curry, Bismati Rice, Damson Tartine, and a little Bollinger, (to drown my sorrows), at my action in part exchanging my “unloved”, T143 for a new John Deere on Tracks…my loss, a Belgian Tractor Dealers gain, bon nuit mes braves, Cheerio for now.
Typing without due care and attention.