More Mercs for Britain
Page 6
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SIX more Mercedes-Benz models are being introduced to the UK market this week —one of them the 1626S/30 seen here with the Technical Editor at the wheel in the course of a full CM road test, to be reported in next week's issue. This 1626 model and the higher-powered 1632 from the New Generation range will augment and not replace the 1418 and 1924 types. Mercedes claim that by holding the existing prices of the 1418 and 1924 they are now very competitive. Basic prices for the old and new models are :— LPS 1418 £9991 LPS 1924 £10,889 (splitter option £555) 1626S/30 £13,250 1632S/35 E15,650 More details of the newlyintroduced models are given on page 24. The V8 1626 and the V10 1632 differ in gearboxes as well as engines, having respectively a 12speed splitter and a ninespeed range-change (eight plus crawler). The Technical Editor writes : At the MercedesBenz demonstration at Chobham to launch the new models I drove the V10engined tractive unit with trailer coupled, and over this comparatively short distance was impressed by its smoothness. To avoid engine damage through over-revving — say, by a missed gearchange — it has a fail-safe device which prevents the driver from over-riding the range-change by going, for example, from eighth to third inadvertently. Instrumentation and control layout are identical for both the New Generation models. By virtue of being left-handdrive machines originally, they have a "reversed" gearbox pattern in rho form : the lower gears are towards the driver and the higher gears away from him. This would not, however, explain why the range-change and splitter switches on both the new trucks had such a noisy release of compressed air when operated.