Regular Biglorryblog readers may recall I recently posted up shots of the above truck-a Scania Longline-taken by 'The Boss' on one of his trips to France. Well the old curmudgeon thought there was something starnge about it and the driver insisted that it was a 'special' Longline (only 1 of 7). Intrigued I asked the oracle in Sodertajle, Per-Erik Nordstrom, who came back with this picture and the following words: "Brian, clever detective work by some colleagues has produced some details about this vehicle. It is in fact the first prototype (an R164 which you actually slept in it one glorious night at the DemoCentre). Scania Sverige, the Swedish distributor, bought it from the lab and used it to sponsor Tony Rickardsson, our multi-speedway-champ (6 individual ones), who ventured into Porsche racing after his speedway career. Besides using the vehicle for transporting the Carrera around, Tony has participated with the vehicle in some Scania events over the years with great success. As you see from the photos, the vehicle has a lot of exterior embellishments and a special interior from Elbe. The gang pictured here around Tony Rickardsson is the national 2007 Scania Young European Truck Driver winners from Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Finland and Estonia, who as a special price got "a day with the Champ". So the vehicle is not one out of seven, but a total oddball... A lab prototype saved for posterity! Per-Erik." And my thanks for that bit of intelligence. and here's a shot of yours truly and the same protoype that night I slept in it...
And here's Bigloryblog and that prototype Longline--though back then it was called the 'eXc' just outside the 'wire' of the demo centre. had a nice night in it as I recall. Acres of room inside as you can see.
And to help orientate yourself this view is looking back from the driving compartment that and window is in the rear wall-the bed on the left is actually running along the right-hand-side cab wall of the truck. Obviously the interior has been re-trimmed since then as per Per-Erik's e-mail above. Now click through here to see what the eXc (nee Longline) looked like on the road...
I spent a day driving it (though I can't remember if it was this trailer-though I think it was) and it really wasn't that much different to a regular 16.5m artic. You just had to watch the trailer a bit on tight round abouts as the whole outfit was around 17.8m long---the cab being 1.3m longer in total and boy did it show inside. Anyroadup mystery solved... Right Boss?
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