Have you ever wondered what would have happened if someone had put a Cummins L10 in an early model Volvo...? Would you get the best of both worlds? Last week in a chance meeting with legendary ex-Bass fleet engineer (officially they called him distribution services manager) Roger Denniss we got to talking about the time he entered the famous Newton & Ridley 'Scrapyard special' artic - named after the mythical brewery serving the Rovers' Return in Coronation Street - in the 1986 IRTE/BTAC fuel trials. And it surprised everyone but Roger and a few of his cohorts by its impressive results.
Roger kindly sent me these pictures and details of the truck which was a 1978 Volvo F12 4x2 purchased in a scrapyard for £500 and fitted with an L10 290 engine supplied by Cummins, plus a Twin Splitter gearbox from and a Rockwell air starter. In all Roger and his team pared around 1,000kg of its kerbweight. Roger tells me: In addition to the major components [mentioned above] to reduce weight we used a lightweight windscreen, allow wheels and an air hostess's jump seat from a Vickers Viscount!"
Roger continues: "The lads at Bass loved working on this vehicle in their spare time and all came up with ways of reducing weight and improving fuel consumption--I'm still in touch with them 23 years later and still leaning from their input!"
Meanwhile, with Andrew Davis in the driving seat (that's him second from right with the Nigel Mansell wet weather moustache) the Newton and Ridley 'Special Brew' Volvo won the Payload Earning Factor prize, as well as coming top in its class and with an average return of 7.86mpg it ended up in fifth-place in a field of 18 'factory-built' 38-tonners.
Now click through here for more....and what happened when Roger tried to dispose of it...
The Newton & Ridley Cummins-powered F12 was the classic example of a fleet engineer putting his money where his mouth was and with the 'Scrapyard Special' Roger and his team from Bass scored quite a few points not least with regard to showing how to save weight on a top-weight tractor - one of the key reasons for doing it in the first place.
Ironically, after the trials, Roger encountered a few problems of his own as he says:"We did hit one snag when we tried to dispose of the various quite valuable components as we [the Bass fleet engineering dept.] were a cost centre and not a profit centre - so we had nowhere to put the generated income initially."
Indeed, Roger tells me that finding a home for the cash "Very likely took more of my time than putting the concept together in the first place!" Anyway thanks Dennis for sharing those memories and pictures. Maybe some of his ex-Bass lieutenants have some more shots of the Newton and Ridley 'Special Brew'?
Imagine trying to do it now with a modern day engine - attempting to join all the non-common electronic interfaces... I guess it would be impossible! Or would it...? What do you reckon... Could it be done with today's trucks?
It was actually an Ingersoll Rand air starter that literally whizzed the engine into action, not very practical in sevice if the vehicle dropped its air, especially on one of Burton's bridges on a Friday lunch time. I remember coming to the rescue of a normally calm Les Stone the driver trainer in a Bedford Urban Artic blocking the other side of the bridge and offering support via the Bedford red line, I suppose it was quicker than flicking battery lids off and connecting two jump leads, it also highlighted that an air starter may not be the solution for a quiet life in town or at night judging by the reaction of the people on the pavement.
The truck had a twin splitter and very fast rear axle, when the truck was finally sold, the breaker had done a deal for the L10 for a Constructor in Wales, the gearbox was on its way to Holland and the rear axle was going truck racing. The Alcoa wheels with the Conti EOT energy optimised tyres where going on his own truck. Those EOT tyres had a peculiar shoulder.