After last week’s double header of capable coupes, I felt it was time for something completely different. I’ve got form for choosing bone fide crowd pleasers for this slot, having previously entertained myself with delights including a Haflinger, Sebring-Vanguard Citi-Car and my own personal favourite, a Bedford CF Ice Cream Van. I may have excelled myself this time however. Do you find you can’t stay in one place too long? Do you find people might look at you and you’ll be gone? Do you have the urge to move and keep on keeping on? We’ll, you’re in luck; here’s a Roadrunner, baby!
Some of Dave’s more esoteric Prime Finds…
Now, assuming you’ve read this far you can pat yourself on the back for recognising that the world of classics isn’t all about desirable sports cars. Clever you, you are a step closer to becoming a polymath of distinction. Commercial vehicles are an essential part of the historical street scene and you often don’t notice them until they’re gone. Panel vans are sometimes squirrelled away but you need more space to house an old lorry, and once the economics cease to make sense a moribund working vehicle rapidly becomes an albatross. Those that escape the breakers often leave for a new life in the developing world and the high streets of their home lands are left lacking. It takes a special sort to keep an old 7.5 tonne truck going, even one as formerly desirable as the Leyland Roadrunner.
Leyland Truck and Bus had suffered under British Leyland. Any income they did come across was syphoned off to prop up various failing car divisions and product development was severely lacking. Truck and Bus were undermined by chronic financial mismanagement; unwittingly or at least incompetently eroding the whole group’s chances of success rather than tackling the core problems. I recently wrote on these pages about the transition from British Leyland to Austin Rover Group. Following the nationalisation of British Leyland in 1975, the government appointed Sir Michael Edwardes to troubleshoot the business away from disaster. He scythed his way through the broken empire, removing undesirable elements and closing unproductive plants. Many of the old marques were put to sleep and the streamlined Austin Rover Group emerged in 1982, providing a home for Austin, Rover, Land Rover, Jaguar and Leyland Truck and Bus. For the first time, Truck and Bus had the opportunity to stand and fall by their own actions.
The late 1970s were a difficult time for the business with export sales drying up and many of the old colonial markets starting to look elsewhere. Leyland’s smallest lorries were the Terrier and Boxer, utilising the G-Series cab also found on the heavier Reiver and Clydesdale chassis. Whilst not particularly old designs in themselves, they didn’t break new ground and Leyland faced stiff competition from the likes of Scania and Volvo who offered greater levels of ergonomics, comfort and reliability. A less fatigued driver was a more a more productive driver, and greater reliability speaks for itself. Leyland could just about get away with it as long as their domestic rivals weren’t much further ahead, and whilst Ford plodded along the D-Series and Bedford continued with the TK the situation wasn’t yet critical. However, the rug got pulled with the arrival of the Ford Cargo in 1981.
The Ford Cargo caught the 7.5 tonne truck market on the hop. Styled by Patrick Le Quément, father of the Ford Sierra, the Cargo sported an aerodynamic cab with a wide range of chassis configurations. Heralding a new world of driver focussed design, the Ford was cost efficient to run and comfortable for the driver to operate. Ford had really sought to understand the needs of the segment, with quarter windows extending down almost to floor level to assist in positioning the lorry in the urban environment. This attention to the driver’s working environment put clear water between the new age Ford and the staid products coming from Leyland. Suddenly, the G-Series cabs seemed very old hat indeed.
Connected by more than just the manufacturer’s badge
Leyland needed an answer to the Cargo, and fast. They had already taken a quantum leap forward in the heavy truck segment the previous year with the Ogle designed T45. That’s the same Ogle who penned the Reliant Scimitar GTE, Bond Bug, Plaxton Paramount coach bodies and the Raleigh Chopper bicycle. Leyland elected to stick with an updated Terrier chassis and focus their development budget where it was needed the most. Ogle were commissioned to create a proposal for the new Cargo rival but their ideas were turned down as the cost of productionising composite materials and large areas of glass was deemed too expensive. With the bottom line being all important, an in-house design was pursued with much of the initial work conducted using IBM Computer Aided Design. This was a forward thinking approach and paid off handsomely by cutting overall programme spend significantly, compared to traditional drawing board design and prototyping. Buoyed by the step change in the use of technology, Leyland pushed onward with some bold decisions. The whole cab would be constructed from only seven major components, the entire floor being formed of one single pressing and the large windscreen bonded in for strength and safety. With manufacturing complexity reduced, assembly time was optimised and the aerodynamic shell of the cab was efficient in every sense. Crucially, the weight saved in construction contributed to a 500kg payload advantage versus Roadrunner’s competitors.
All from the same design house
Inside, Leyland made use of passenger car grade materials and ergonomics. The key instrumentation was thoughtfully laid out and driver comfort was made a priority with an orthopaedic seat and power steering with an adjustable column. Ventilation was much improved over its predecessors and the new truck could even offer heated door mirrors. It was better equipped than many of the cars offered by Leyland’s extended family at the time. Under the skin the Roadrunner was more conventional, but it wasn’t simply a continuation of the Terrier. The in-house 115bhp 5.6 litre diesel engine was carried over but a new air brake system was introduced. This paved the way for the more powerful Cummins B Series engine and front ventilated disc brakes which lasted 60% longer than drums and shoes whilst performing better, a first in the segment.
With a potential winner in their hands, Leyland set about letting the world know and took the unprecedented step of commissioning a primetime television advert. It’s not normal to advertise lorries on television, and the conversion rate into pure sales can’t have been justified, but as a piece of marketing for the sake of brand awareness Leyland hit a home run. Rather than drone on about any of the important technical factors such as payload, fuel economy and service intervals they simply took Belgian stunt driver Gilbert Bataille to the south of France and got him to totter dramatically along a runway on two wheels. This caught the public’s attention so much that Leyland engaged home grown autotester and stunt driver Russ Swift to repeat the trick at live events in the UK. The Roadrunner was not only the toughest truck on four wheels, it was the toughest truck on two.
Should you feel inspired to try a spot of two-wheeled driving yourself, we’ve found a Roadrunner for sale at Mathewsons auctioneers which might just fit the bill. It’s an unsold lot from their previous sale but a 7.5 tonner requires a buyer with a decent sized yard so wouldn’t immediately attract the casual impulse bidder. This 1986 Beaver Tail is a highly practical variant, having been owned by the vendor since 2008 and used to transport vintage tractors to rallies, which probably accounts for its low mileage of 188,000. It comes with a new winch, a new set of tyres and various spares, having in the words of the auctioneer “many years of service left in it”. The Austin 8 seen on the rear in Mathewson’s photographs is not included, but with the Roadrunner on offer for as little as £2,500 you can’t really complain. Now really, if you don’t get excited about the possibilities such a truck could open up, there must be something wrong with you. Now excuse me please, I have to keep on keeping on.
With our Saturday instalment of Prime Find of the Week, we’re offering our services to the classic car community, by passing on our favourite classic car for sale from the week that passed. This top-tip might help a first-time-buyer to own his first classic, or it could even be the perfect motivation for a multiple-classic-car-owner to expand his garage with something different. We’ll let us inspire by anything from a cheap project to a stunning concours exotic, and hope that you will do the same.
Just remember – Any Classic is Better than No Classic! We obviously invite our readers to help prospective buyers with your views and maybe even experiences of any given model we feature. Further to that, if you stumble across a classic which you feel we ought to feature as Prime Find of the Week, then please send us a link to primefindoftheweek@viaretro.co.uk