Camions extraordinaires
Like the golden age when Britain had a diversity of truck makes, France had a parallel âge d›or. Much like Britain’s, it was irrationalised out of existence 40 or so years ago.
France’s camions were about as different from British trucks as the English language is from French. In general, bonneted trucks were more dominant than the forward control/cabover layout favoured in Britain.
La belle France being roughly twice the land area of Britain with about the same population, long haul has been a major market segment going back to when highways were first tarmac surfaced. For decades, the most characteristically French long-haul configuration was a bonneted six-wheeler with a single- or double-drive bogie, with or without a drawbar trailer.
The foremost manufacturer of run-of-the-road medium and heavy trucks – and long-haulers – was Berliet. But like Willème, Somua, Bernard and Latil, the legend of Lyons also produced some out-of-the-ordinary vehicles with an abundance of ‘Wow’ factor.
Bernard and Latil, gained an edge by installing licence-built direct-injection Gardner diesels. And by applying advances made early in its history, after World War One, Latil became a leading innovator of special-purpose four-wheel-drive/four-wheel-steer vehicles.
While French manufacturers in general have not been especially pioneering in commercial vehicle engineering terms, a small nucleus of makes were responsible for some significant firsts. These include three widely adopted contributions
