Biglorryblog never ceases to be amazed and impressed by the fantastic golden nuggests that 'The Brochure King' (aka Richard Stanier) has stashed away in his archives - including all kinds of stuff I've never even heard of... Like the truck above! "Hi Brian", he says. "I enjoyed the interesting recent piece on the rise and rise of the Globetrotter cab, and I have found a few photos of my own to send in. The F16 Globetrotter designated the 'Imperial' was an impressive machine. This truck had a particularly high specification of extras in the cab, and the photo is taken from a Swedish brochure. Does anyone know if similar vehicles were ever available in the UK?" Well The imperial is definitely a new one on me... Has any else heard of it? I seem to recall a special edition called 'The Viking' but not this one. And click through here for more 'I never knew that' cab moments!
Rich continues: "The 'Topsleeper' is an interesting beast - and noticeably different from the Eurotrotter that was blogged and heavily discussed last year. I don't think this option was a regular Volvo offering but it looks like a Volvo exhibit in the press photo. Does anyone know anymore about this version?"
And then Rich pulls this rabbit out of the hat! "Lastly, just to show all Volvos are not the handsome trucks we know and love. Check out this ugly duckling which was a pre-production F10/12. I don't know whether this is one of those heavily disguised test units, or they really thought about building them like this, but it seems to fit the old adage (with respect to Eric Morcambe) that the correct panels have been used, but not neccessarily in the correct order! Rich."
richard mate,you never cease to amaze me!i am a major, top of the league volvo f16 globetrotter anorak and i had never heard of the "imperial".i remember both the "monte carlo" and "ambassador" models though.
There was an article on the Imperial in the TRUCK magazine. I've seen a photo of a mock up of the "F" cab with vertical headlights in the development stage like the bottom photo.Also there were mock up's of setforward front axle "F" cabs or would that be "G" cab.
The topsleeper looks like a after market modification. Some companies in Holland used to produce these topsleepers.
I think the dutch importer (Nebim) did sell some of these local modification via his dealer network.