Design is often a combination of engineering and applied art. At its worst, the purely appearance aspect is the crude application of creative faculties.
In the automotive world, exterior design is familiarly known as styling. The results have ranged from aesthetically pleasing individuality to today’s barely indistinguishable 44-tonners, designed in accordance with EU legislative diktat.
A standout example of never-seen-before aesthetic distinction was the Foden FE4/8. Launched at the 1952 Commercial Motor Show, the eight-tonner (seven tons for exports) was powered by Foden’s two-stroke, four-cylinder FD4 diesel.
The absence of an exposed radiator or grille panel characteristic of every other British truck of the period was made possible by the FD4’s low-set radiator. Its other main signature feature was the first-ever use of curved glass on a British commercial vehicle. The new-look windscreen quarter panels were the products of glass forming technology introduced by Triplex.
With curved quarter windows complemented by rounded lower sheetmetal, the FE4/8 signalled the end of conventional coachbuilt cabs with right-angle front corners that did nothing to help airflow.
ERF’s far better known two-panel panoramic windscreen KV ‘Kleer-Vue’ cab might be thought to have initiated the curved glass revolution. Not so – it was introduced in 1953, a year after the FE4/8.
There was nothing arbitrary or contrived about the front-end of Foden’s new eight-tonner. A classic example of form following function, it was designed to utilise the packaging advantages of the exceptionally compact
