The Club of Four was an alliance of four European truck manufacturers:
Saviem
The Société Anonyme de Véhicules Industriels et d'Équipements Mécaniques (), commonly known by the acronym Saviem (), was a French manufacturer of trucks and buses/coaches part of the Renault group, headquartered in Suresnes, Île-de-France ...
,
Volvo
The Volvo Group ( sv, Volvokoncernen; legally Aktiebolaget Volvo, shortened to AB Volvo, stylized as VOLVO) is a Swedish multinational manufacturing corporation headquartered in Gothenburg. While its core activity is the production, distributio ...
,
DAF
Daf ( fa, دف) also known as Dâyere and Riq is a Middle Eastern (mainly Iranian) frame drum musical instrument, used in popular and classical music in South and Central Asia. It is also used in Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Tajikistan, Iran, Uzbe ...
, and
Magirus-Deutz
Magirus GmbH is a truck manufacturer based in Ulm, Germany, founded by Conrad Dietrich Magirus (1824–1895). It was formerly known as Klöckner Humboldt Deutz AG, maker of the Deutz engines, so the brand commonly used was Magirus Deutz, and for ...
.
Officially called the Société Européenne de Travaux et de Développement (ETD), the team was based in Paris. Founded to develop a shared range of light trucks, its main success was a shared cab design. Cabs can be one of the most expensive parts of a truck to design and build; the alliance allowed one cab design to be shared among four different truck manufacturers, allowing
economies of scale
In microeconomics, economies of scale are the cost advantages that enterprises obtain due to their scale of operation, and are typically measured by the amount of output produced per unit of time. A decrease in cost per unit of output enables ...
. In 1978, Saviem was merged with
Berliet
Berliet was a French manufacturer of automobiles, buses, trucks and military vehicles among other vehicles based in Vénissieux, outside of Lyon, France. Founded in 1899, and apart from a five-year period from 1944 to 1949 when it was put into 'ad ...
to create
Renault Véhicules Industriels
Renault Trucks is a French commercial truck manufacturer with corporate headquarters at Saint-Priest near Lyon. Originally part of Renault, it has been a subsidiary of the Volvo Group since 2001.
From its beginnings in 1978 to 2002, the comp ...
(RVI), but the new company continued as a member of the Club.
Magirus-Deutz became part of
Iveco
IVECO, an acronym for Industrial Vehicles Corporation, is an Italian multinational transport vehicle manufacturing company. It designs and builds light, medium, and heavy commercial vehicles. The name IVECO first appeared in 1975 after a merger o ...
.
The cab was used on a wide range of different trucks. It was even used on Mack trucks in the USA. It remained in production for almost a quarter of a century. Although initially intended for medium trucks it was also used on light trucks, even the 6-tonne Magirus 90M6FK.
History
Cab design usage
Volvo
![1980 Volvo F 611 (7369773594)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/92/1980_Volvo_F_611_%287369773594%29.jpg)
At first, Volvo used the cab most; adopting it across the F4 (F406/F407/F408) and F6 (F609/F610/F611/F612/F613/F614) ranges of trucks. The first to be sold in the UK was the F7 range of trucks, which replaced Volvo's old F86. These Club of Four cabs continued until 1985-1986 by which time the
Volvo FL
The Volvo FL is Volvo's smallest truck and is suitable for local and regional distribution operations, refuse collection, construction truck or small format tractor. The Volvo FL has been built since the summer of 1985 in a variety of different mo ...
was being produced with new Volvo cabs, although the new FL6 was superficially similar to the Club of Four.
Volvo's Club of Four cabs had to be reinforced to meet strict Swedish safety standards, which made their weight less competitive. The Club of Four cab was also used on the CH230, a series of specially built narrow-bodied, larger engined truck to fit Switzerland's restrictive rules on size and weight.
The first CH230 used the Club of Four cab atop the
F89 chassis, with the narrower
F86 front axle and the
N10 rear axle.
[ It was introduced in 1977. In 1980 the next iteration appeared, now using the F7 cab atop the F10/F12's chassis. It continued in production until 1986, when it was replaced by the FS10.][
Volvo's membership of the Club of Four was a major influence on its decision to shift truck manufacturing to ]Gent
Gent is a shortened form of the word gentleman. It may also refer to:
* Ghent (Dutch: Gent), a Belgian city
** K.A.A. Gent, a football club from Ghent
** K.R.C. Gent, a football club from Ghent
** Gent RFC, a rugby club in Ghent
** .gent, a ...
, in Belgium
Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...
(because imports from Volvo's Gothenburg factory to the EEC were, at that time, subject to heavy import duties).
Saviem and Berliet (later Renault)
At first, H/HB-series trucks (up to 26 tonnes) and J-series light trucks (9–13 tonnes) were fitted with the Club of Four cab. Later, the cab was also used on the heavier G series, as well as the lighter JK65/75/85 trucks and the Renault C and S series. This series was briefly sold as "Saviem" trucks in Britain, but changed to Renault badging in September 1979 as part of a push to establish this brand in the British commercial vehicles' market.
RVI trucks branded as Berliet carried the Club of Four cab as well in 1978–1979.
The Club of Four cab was later adapted to Renault Midliner, Maxter, and Manager trucks.[
Renault C-series (including CLM, CBB and CBH, and also GBC 180) construction and military vehicles with conventional cabins adapted Club of Four cab as well. ]Renault Sherpa Medium
Groupe Renault ( , , , also known as the Renault Group in English; legally Renault S.A.) is a French multinational automobile manufacturer established in 1899. The company produces a range of cars and vans, and in the past has manufactured ...
family derived from CB-series is still in production (2019).
Bangladesh Army Renault TRM 180.11 (27318944402).jpg, Renault TRM 180.11, a military version of Midliner, of the Bangladeshi Army
Police Paris CRS vehicule dsc06486.jpg, Renault Midliner, late 1990s model
Renault C 210 truck - Flickr - Joost J. Bakker IJmuiden.jpg, Renault C 210 dump truck
Renault CBH 350 (1).jpg, Renault CBH 350 dump truck
Renault CBB 385 004.JPG, Renault CBB tractor unit of the French Army
Renault Sherpa 5 x2 Francazal.jpg, Renault Sherpa 5 trucks of the French Army
Magirus-Deutz (later Iveco)
Magirus
Magirus GmbH is a truck manufacturer based in Ulm, Germany, founded by Conrad Dietrich Magirus (1824–1895). It was formerly known as Klöckner Humboldt Deutz AG, maker of the Deutz engines, so the brand commonly used was Magirus Deutz, and for ...
intended to use the Club of Four cab on light trucks; this was inherited by Iveco
IVECO, an acronym for Industrial Vehicles Corporation, is an Italian multinational transport vehicle manufacturing company. It designs and builds light, medium, and heavy commercial vehicles. The name IVECO first appeared in 1975 after a merger o ...
as they took over the Magirus company before the cab entered production in Germany. The Iveco-built version was originally sold as the Magirus-Deutz MK range in Germany and certain other markets, this became the Magirus-Iveco in the early 1980s.
Iveco, having owned Magirus since 1975, sold the truck as a Magirus or Iveco-Magirus (with slightly changed designations) until they retired the Magirus badge entirely. From then on, Iveco marketed the Club of Four truck - still as the "MK" - directly under their own name. Production came to an end in 1992 as it was replaced by the new Iveco Eurocargo
The Iveco EuroCargo is a range of medium-duty trucks produced by the Italian manufacturer Iveco since 1991. The EuroCargo replaced the Zeta model produced in the 1970s.
First generation (1991-2002)
The first generation was designed by Giorgett ...
, although limited production of crew cabs for special applications continued a little while longer.
DAF
DAF started using the Club of Four cab in 1975 on the DAF F700 and F900; it was later used on the F500, F1100, F1300, and F1500. DAF merged with Leyland in 1987, and replaced its Club of Four cabs with Leyland cabs.[
]
Mack
American Mack also used the Club of Four cabin, thanks to their linkup with Renault (who purchased 10 percent of Mack in 1979). These competed in the Class 6 and Class 7 medium-duty weight categories. Built by RVI in France, it was sold as the Mack Mid-Liner or Manager. Originally it was available in MS200 or MS300 models, fitted with 5.5 or 8.8 litre turbocharged diesel inline-six engines respectively. These were built by Renault and offered or . The MS300 was also available as a tractor unit. The Mack Mid-liner range was replaced in 2001 by the new Mack Freedom
Mack may refer to:
People
*Mack (given name)
*Mack (surname)
*Reinhold Mack, German record producer and sound engineer, often credited as simply "Mack"
*Richard Machowicz (1965–2017), host of ''FutureWeapons'' and ''Deadliest Warrior'', known as ...
, also built by Renault.[ A heavier duty version with the less powerful engine was introduced in the mid-1980s, called the MS250.
For the North American market a bonneted version was also developed. This was called the CS (for "Conventional Styling") and appeared in 1985.] As with the cab-over model, a tractor version (CS300T) was made available a little later.
References
{{reflist, 2
Trucks
Iveco
Renault trucks
Volvo Trucks
DAF Trucks vehicles
Saviem
Mack Trucks