Truck Shite

[Vantman]

[Pillock]

Truxx Factor

 

 

Full Autoshite Livery

[Pillock]

And the ones who hadn't spent all morning drinking (it's a weekend-long show, don't panic - but most of the drivers were sloshing by lunchtime) got to squeeze their trucks under the gantry and go racing.

 

These chaps were running about 21-22 seconds - the same as a "warm hatch".

 

And then the big boys came out to play

 

The chap closest to the camera here got right into it, rolling burnouts and everything by the end of the day. This pair were running 18 seconds or so

 

This was a Formula 1 truck, so quicker - into the 16s (the same as something like a Civic Type R). Sadly something popped on the last run of the day.

[CreepingJesus]

Back in the early days of truck racing's rise across Europe, some of the manufacturers got a bit naughty with what constituted a 'road' truck that was available to buy from a dealer, as per the ethic of the thing at the time. Merc's factory entry was a 'fire engine' chassis: special lightweight frame rails, carbon fibre cab and twin turbo'd V8 poking out something like 900 horse in road trim...!

[0ldCh0d]

[Vantman]

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/ERF-A-SERIES-RIGID-RECOVERY-TRUCK-Restoration-Project/162519851918?_trksid=p2047675.c100005.m1851&_trkparms=aid%3D222007%26algo%3DSIM.MBE%26ao%3D2%26asc%3D44293%26meid%3D00e71ce857a147e888b7355fe5cd4889%26pid%3D100005%26rk%3D1%26rkt%3D6%26mehot%3Dpp%26sd%3D222516950164

[Steve79]

On holiday in Cyprus and heard this approaching well before it trundled up the hill past us.

[Jim Bell]

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[Jim Bell]

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[Jim Bell]

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[0ldCh0d]

I don't know if this is the appropriate thread, but I just seen this today on the tube of you.....Lesson to remember, Know the height of your vehicle.

 

Some proper brown trousers pictures....

 

[martc]

Bridge bashing - fast forward to 2:20

[0ldCh0d]

Bridge bashing - fast forward to 2:20

 

More than a minor bump that.....lol.

[rwd]

On holiday in Cyprus and heard this approaching well before it trundled up the hill past us.

Bring it back I want it

[doug]

Been meaning to get a pic of this for some time. eventually managed it today.

 

[CreepingJesus]

Oaft...wish I could superlike that. Shelvoke (and Drewry) is probably the bastard difficult answer to a pub quiz question. How long did Dennis get out of that cab? HEIL bin trucks are round the corner from my old house, and those cabs turned up in the yard for many years...

 

There's a few bridges I recognise in that bridge strikes video. None as special to me as the railway bridge in Burntisland docks: Robson's of Carlisle lost a few against that one in the 90s, hauling bagged blaes from Alcan. Cheap entertainment when we were in the Smuggler's Inn right by it, and heard *that* noise...

[scruff]

I can now add "LHD V8 Iveco Turbostar" to the list of lorries I've had a punt in. Moved this from Harwich down to Kent last night, bit of a play both ends. Rough as arseholes - but the engine was bang on.

 

[Vantman]

That is a lovely Iveco,i ran a 190-29 the one with the Maggie air cooled engine,for reasons unknown it had a glorious exhaust note when pulling hard. The last time I saw it in Dover docks it was riddled with tin worm and still going strong.

[doug]

I soooo want this unfortunately Mrs Doug say no. Spotted down Ayr shore.

 

 

 

 

[Pillock]

Is there a truck show on somewhere in the middle of the country?

I went up the A46 today and passed loads of chod headed south from Newark towards Leicester - late 70s/early 80s ERFs and Fodens and stuff, some Leylands too.

Then on the A453 headed past the power station out of Nottingham towards the M1, passed something called a Quest 80 on a low loader. Looked fugging superb. I assume it was this exact one, the livery looked the same

 

 

And I would hazard a guess the yellow and blue thing next to it was what was pulling the rig - an FTF?

[CreepingJesus]

Think I'm right in saying, that's the only surviving Quest 80 truck of the very few built. There's more of their coaches left, and that's saying something.

*RML2345 to the beige phone...call about a Quest or something?*

[Justin Case]

Is there a truck show on somewhere in the middle of the country?

I went up the A46 today and passed loads of chod headed south from Newark towards Leicester - late 70s/early 80s ERFs and Fodens and stuff, some Leylands too.

There was an AEC rally at the Newark showground yesterday and today, perhaps they invited other makes too?

[Pillock]

That makes the most sense so far, since all the trucks were heading away from Newark.

The other show on was at Gaydon today, but they were headed in that direction about 4pm which makes no sense.

[Inspector Morose]

That quest is one of only two registered in the uk. One was a tipper and the other carried a box body on a longer chassis. They were quite unconventional with all of the dials and switches in the cab mounted above the windscreen and the chassis was fitted with air suspension, the rear using a rather over engineered A frame akin to the leyland national.

Quest sort of accidentally got into vehicle production, being set up initially as a consulting/product design business. One of their first jobs was to design a new trolleybus for the sigma corporation of South Africa. Once designed, Sigma requested a working prototype and so a factory unit was secured in Telford to build it. This trolleybus used a MCW Metrobus under frame, modified to be electrically powered at Telford then shipped to South Africa to be bodied by BUSAF in Johannesburg.

Alongside the trolleybus, a request was forthcoming for the design of an advanced lorry chassis to be shipped to SA CKD and assembled there. About 600 kits were shipped and I think the two over here were of the same type.

Quest 80 then turned its attention to the uk bus industry and designed a suite of buses and coaches that utilised Ford truck components but in a more passenger friendly rear engined layout. To achieve a compact driveline, the engine and gearbox were mounted side by side and connected by a Morse chain drive - sometimes this was advertised as the "U" drive for fairly obvious reasons.. None were particularly successful and only sold in small numbers, mainly to independant operators wanting a more modern lightweight coach.

Then came the VM. This was a collaboration with Exelsior Coaches of Bournemouth and utilised a marine version of the ford six cylinder diesel (as used on the then general manager of Exelsiors boat) mounted in line at the rear with a six speed ford gearbox thus eliminating the chain drive. A cable operated gear linkage allowed the lever to be mounted to the right of the driver, just under the cab window. All were bodied with a special low driving position version of Plaxtons paramount 3200 body. All was not well however a one after the other, the new VM caught fire and was burnt out, at least one never made the delivery from Scarborough to Bournemouth without catching fire. Added to terrible build quality and poor reliability the frequent combustability meant the vehicles were extremely short lived with the operator that helped design them. A number were sold to ther operators around the country and at least one survives in preservation.

Quest 80 never recovered from this debacle and the company was sold, moving headquarters from Telford to Zimbabwe where it still exists.

[Pillock]

"if Autoshite made coaches...."

 

Thanks for the history, really interesting! I also found a truck forum where someone had been snapping the Quest80 trucks whilst in use around Derby

[quicksilver]

More about Quest 80: http://rustyoldrubbish.blogspot.co.uk/2016/04/a-futile-quest.html

[quicksilver]

I went to the fair today. A lot of showmen have shiny modern stuff now but I was very pleased to see these two old stagers still doing the business. The red one has been with its current owner since 1985 and the white one since 1989 so fair play to them for keeping hold of them for so long.

 

 

[0ldCh0d]

[Semi-C]

The firm that occupies the unit next door to my work have this as a yard shunter

 

 

Fancy.

[shellac]

Two surviving -- ugly things!

Here's the other survivor:

Quest   WNT502Y by Alan Drake, on Flickr

 

The set forward cab caused problems with axle loadings and the chassis' apparently cracked regularly

 

That quest is one of only two registered in the uk. One was a tipper and the other carried a box body on a longer chassis. They were quite unconventional with all of the dials and switches in the cab mounted above the windscreen and the chassis was fitted with air suspension, the rear using a rather over engineered A frame akin to the leyland national.
Quest sort of accidentally got into vehicle production, being set up initially as a consulting/product design business. One of their first jobs was to design a new trolleybus for the sigma corporation of South Africa. Once designed, Sigma requested a working prototype and so a factory unit was secured in Telford to build it. This trolleybus used a MCW Metrobus under frame, modified to be electrically powered at Telford then shipped to South Africa to be bodied by BUSAF in Johannesburg.
Alongside the trolleybus, a request was forthcoming for the design of an advanced lorry chassis to be shipped to SA CKD and assembled there. About 600 kits were shipped and I think the two over here were of the same type.
Quest 80 then turned its attention to the uk bus industry and designed a suite of buses and coaches that utilised Ford truck components but in a more passenger friendly rear engined layout. To achieve a compact driveline, the engine and gearbox were mounted side by side and connected by a Morse chain drive - sometimes this was advertised as the "U" drive for fairly obvious reasons.. None were particularly successful and only sold in small numbers, mainly to independant operators wanting a more modern lightweight coach.
Then came the VM. This was a collaboration with Exelsior Coaches of Bournemouth and utilised a marine version of the ford six cylinder diesel (as used on the then general manager of Exelsiors boat) mounted in line at the rear with a six speed ford gearbox thus eliminating the chain drive. A cable operated gear linkage allowed the lever to be mounted to the right of the driver, just under the cab window. All were bodied with a special low driving position version of Plaxtons paramount 3200 body. All was not well however a one after the other, the new VM caught fire and was burnt out, at least one never made the delivery from Scarborough to Bournemouth without catching fire. Added to terrible build quality and poor reliability the frequent combustability meant the vehicles were extremely short lived with the operator that helped design them. A number were sold to ther operators around the country and at least one survives in preservation.
Quest 80 never recovered from this debacle and the company was sold, moving headquarters from Telford to Zimbabwe where it still exists.