Tuesday, October 30, 2007

Most Beautiful Truck

Renault Magnum




The Renault Magnum is the flagship model of Renault Trucks, which is available in semi and rigid configurations. Both configurations can be bought with a 6x2 or 4x2 drivetrain.





Engine

The engine is derived from the 12L inline-6 engine of Ab Volvo Group. Changes include new engine management and an injection system co-developed with Delphi. So that, performance and brand characteristics for each brand is preserved. There is also a Mack derived V8 engine available which is not noticeable from the outside, as regards to the fact the truck itself, looks like any other Magnum. Once it starts up, you can tell its a V8 with the rumble that comes from it, some companies have opted to have the word "MACK" placed on the front rather than the usual "RENAULT" badge.
Transmission

The transmission offered as standard is a ZF servoshift air-assisted 16-speed manual. The Optidrive II 12 speed automated transmission with 4 reverse speeds is offered as an option. This transmission can also be used in manual operation mode.


Cabin

When the Magnum was released way back in 1990, it was, to many drivers, a revolution in cab design (flat floor and lots of space to move about). For many years the Magnum had the biggest cab on the road until 1995 when Daf Trucks came to join the party with the flagship version of the 95 called the super space cab. This urinated on Renault's bonfire at the Commercial Motor Expo in 2000 when Daf managed to fit the cab from a Magnum inside the cab of a 95. Renault responded by making a taller cab version to which caused controversy with many commercial vehicle manufacturers as the cab itself was taller than E.U Regulations. Renault rapidly withdrew the design because of fears that many operators that had pre ordered this design could sue them for misleading them, Renault lost many customers for the magnum although many companies still operate these trucks.

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