Dodging Shap saves an hour
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• On test this week by CM, a Dennis Defiant tractive unit hauling a York single-axle semitrailer and running at 24 tons gross covered the 379 miles of operational trial route between Hemel Hempstead and Pathhead, Midlothian, in 9hr I min. This was over an hour less than has been achieved on previous CM operational trials, and shows the effect of using, for the first time, the new extension of M6 avoiding Shap and using the new Carlisle bypass.
In this first-ever Press test of a vehicle using the turbocharged Perkins 6.354 diesel, better than 8.5 mpg was achieved by the Dennis on the motorway sections running at full load.
A full test report on this important model will be published in next week's Commercial Motor.