German Ingenuity Emphasized
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LAST week it was seen that foithcoming new construction and use regulations and the hope of military contracts were influencing German designs. The review of exhibits in alphabetical order is concluded this week.
A newcomer to the field of European vehicle makers is the Hogra. This Dutch 7-tonner has a Perkins R.6 power unit and British gearbox and rear axle, but German Ate hydraulic brakes with an air servo are fitted. The chassis is the first production model and the manufacturers are to be admired for their optimism at showing it in Frankfurt.
Krauss-Maffei A.G. have three rear-engined coaches on their stand, Deutz air-cooled oil engines being used. The KMS 125, a new design, is powered by a Deutz V-6 125 b.h.p. unit. It has the " shell " type of integral construction in which all the framing members are stressed nearly equally—a type of construction having weight and cost advantages. As a town bus with a maximum capacity of 100 passengers, the KMS 125 weighs 6 tons 18 cwt. unladen and it is provisionally priced at £5,300. A novel feature is the use of independent front suspension by coil springs.
Friedrich Krupp G.m.b.H. are again exhibiting their NWF passenger chassis. This has the radiator set to the side of the engine to reduce the length of the cowl and to provide good access to the front of the engine. Improvements to the original design include air-assisted steering and a ZF Hydro-Media gearbox.
Several large multi-wheel-drive chassis are shown, all with oil engines, but a new lightweight chassis has been introduced. This is the L5W3 Widder, with a 5-ton payload capacity and a three-cylindered 4.4-litre 110. b.h_p. oil engine. This is the first time that Krupp have offered such a relatively small vehicle.
Lloyd have re-engined their 10-cwt. van this year. It now has a 600 c.c. twin-cylindered four-stroke unit, developing 19 b.h.p. at 4,500 r.p.m. The distributor is driven directly off the back of the camshaft.
The principal attraction on the Magirus-Deutz stand is the new S 7500 F Jupiter forward-control chassis. It has a V-8 170 b.h.p. air-cooled oil engine which, despite its size, has been mounted under the cab floor. The cab is an excellent spacious design and the top half is arranged to hinge forward from the floor line to provide easy access to the engine.
The new Jupiter is a 7i-tonner and has ZE (iemmer power steering to cope with the high front-axle loading. Production is expected to start next July.
Review of New Designs Concluded: Germans Show Signs of Active Interest in New Markets Overseas : 1i-deck Bus has Capacity for 150 Passengers
In addition to their new Multi-Fuel engine, M.A.N.
are showing several new chassis. A 5-tonner, the 400 L, with a 100 b.h.p. engine, makes its first appearance. It is offered with either forward or normal control. This also marks a new venture into the lightweight range for another manufacturer and shows that the larger makers are urgently considering attracting a new type of customer. The other new M.A.N. is the 420 HOC 1 rearengined passenger chassis. The frame is of the " bodyunderframe " type and is fabricated from 16 s.w.g. sheet steel. The frame alone weighs about 900 lb., which should enable vehicle weight to be kept extremely low. The chassis is recommended for 65-passenger bus bodies or 40-seat coach bodies.
• The only British vehicle exhibit is a Commer Superpoise 5-tonner with a light-alloy mobile shop body by ,Smiths Delivery Vehicles, Ltd. This vehicle is one of a large order for Migros-Turk, Turkey.
All of the coachbuilder's exhibits are of a high standard and are too numerous to mention individually. A Rathgeber 62-passenger bus body on the new M.A.N. chassis is notable for its thin-section body sides, these being only 1f-in. thick. An interesting bus design is shown by Aero-Ludewig. This is a 1i-deck vehicle with 50 seats and space for 100 standing passengers.
It is based on a Bussing underfloorengined chassis with a trailing-axle conversion and is 43 ft. long. The upper deck has a sunken gangway on the near side, but this is above the loading platform, so it does not restrict headroom too much. The vehicle is intendedto work where bridge heights prevent the use of double-deckers and its overall height has been kept down to 12 ft. The unladen weight is 10-i tons.
Another Aerobus design is a 68-passenger chassisless bus, powered by a Kamper 108 b.h.p. oil engine. This is equipped for one-man operation and has a completely smooth floor (apart from the wheel-arches) with an entrance-step height of 151 in. Its unladen weight is 41 tons and it sells for 13,900.
A progressive sign among the trailer exhibits is evident in the form of a road-rail 10-ton outfit. This is virtually a standard railway wagon with road wheels fitted outside the flanged wheels: these can be raised when travelling along rails. A conventional drawbar is fitted for road use. J.F.M.