Like so many of us, I have a moderate, if somewhat diverse, collection of truck brochures. Excitedly scurrying around the Earl’s Court Commercial Vehicle show as a schoolboy, Iversions so committed to memory that I can date most, while many are poignant in their own right. They have imperial dimensions and imperious claims, show engine ouputs in net and gross, axle ratios and wheelbase options. You don’t get any of that now, just a website ‘configurator’ for your new truck, let alone a wall poster to illustrate the British Army’s latest tank transporter. That one holds a special place, I sat in the driver’s seat of the first Commander prototype, still in primer, in the Tolpits Lane paintshop. The privileges of the press eh? Not really, I was nine years old, but that’s another story.
