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Super MAN corning soon
Page 13
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• The first right-hand-drive versions of MAN's longawaited 338kW (460hp) supertruck — the 17.462 FLTS tractive unit — are expected to complete UK Type Approval and go on sale in Britain before the end of the summer with an "official" launch planned for the Scottish Motor Show in November.
While MAN-VW is not expecting massive sales with the 17.462, which is fitted with a charge-cooled vee-ten engine pumping out an impressive 2,080Nm (1,5351bft) of torque, it is keen not to be left out in the high-power tractor stakes against the likes of Volvo with the F16, Scania's 143 and Mercedes-Benz with its 1748.
According to MAN-VW's commercial vehicle director Robin Woolcock, the interest in high-horsepower tractive units shows no sign of abating, and only demand for more mainstream 38-tonne tractors has kept the 17.462 out of the UK.
The 17.462 will be sold as a sleeper cab 4x2 with airsuspension on the drive axle as standard. Since Commercial Motor tested a left-hand-drive version in September 1988, MAN has slightly revised the driveline of the 17.462 which will come with the uprated 16S220 ZF Ecospfit 16-speed gearbox as standard, along with a 3.36:1 back axle.
MAN-VW says that by the middle of the year it should also be offering 24-, 26and 28-tonne tractive units based on the latest M90 middleweight rigid range. The brace of lightweight distribution tractors would be powered by the 169kW (230hp) six-cylinder charge-cooled D0826LF engine, currently fitted in the most powerful right-hand-drive 17.232 17-tonne MAN rigid which was launched at last's year's Motor Show. Adclitonal 12and 14-tonne versions of the M90 rigid, however, are not likely to appear in the UK until 1990. 0 The prospect of a threeaxle MAN rigid chassis appears to be gradually receding. MAN-VW says that it has looked at a possible vehicle but it is not a major priority, particularly with the decline in the British three-axle tipper market as operators spend their money on four-axle models with bigger payloads.