![2007_04041Latvia0064[1].jpg](http://www.roadtransport.com/blogs/big-lorry-blog/2007_04041Latvia0064%5B1%5D.jpg)
Biglorryblog has Tim Cotton to thank for this selection and especially as it follows on my recent blog on the trip I did to Russia with MAN and MAZ trucks. "Brian, these were taken in Feb 2007 in Latvia - mainly in Riga." Now can you see what I eman about the similarity of the old MAZ cab and the original Iveco TurboStar?
![2007_04041Latvia0136[1].jpg](http://www.roadtransport.com/blogs/big-lorry-blog/2007_04041Latvia0136%5B1%5D.jpg)
I raised this with the chief engineer at MAZ at the time but he was insistent that the MAZ design was all -home-built' with no influences from any other truck maker... What do you think? Anyroadup click through here for more...
![2007_04041Latvia0163[1].jpg](http://www.roadtransport.com/blogs/big-lorry-blog/2007_04041Latvia0163%5B1%5D.jpg)
Tim continues: "The ones on the beach by the Baltic were in Jurmala where the Soviet presidents used to holiday. It's now a very run-down resort."
![2007_04041Latvia0178[1].jpg](http://www.roadtransport.com/blogs/big-lorry-blog/2007_04041Latvia0178%5B1%5D.jpg)
It says MAZ on the cab but I've never seen a lightweight truck like this before from them. What do my eastern European readers know about it?
![20070403_1662[1].jpg](http://www.roadtransport.com/blogs/big-lorry-blog/20070403_1662%5B1%5D.jpg)
Ahhh... Now you're talking Eastern European trucks! Straight out of 'The wages of fear'!
![20070403_1669[1].jpg](http://www.roadtransport.com/blogs/big-lorry-blog/20070403_1669%5B1%5D.jpg)
Now we know where the old Mercs went...
![2007_04041Latvia0063[1].jpg](http://www.roadtransport.com/blogs/big-lorry-blog/2007_04041Latvia0063%5B1%5D.jpg)
Thanks Tim nice selection...
The crane has earlier type cab that was gradually replaced by the Iveco-look cab. There was also a sleeper version. If I'm not mistaken, this cab was made from 1978, and the Iveco-look cab went into production only in 1990.
Surely the "Wages of Fear" truck was an ex-WW2 Yank 6x6 - don't recall the make - still a teenager when that came out.
Did you notice in the scene when they were teetering on the brink of the reversing platform half way up the mountain there was a low angle close up in which it was plain to see some b.....d had nicked their front axle prop shaft?!!
Film directors will do any rotten thing for effect. At the time I thought: "What a rotten swizz"