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Welcome... Classic Truck

As you’ll be aware, we originally set this at 1980. However, many readers think this should be changed to 1970, and I can understand why. The end of the 1960s brought in a mass of new regulations which changed the industry forever. Things like the introduction of plating and testing which removed many older goods vehicles from our roads, the introduction of HGV licences, the abolition of the carrier’s ‘A’ and ‘B’ licences etc. As a couple of you said, it marked the beginning of the modern industry. And this really does make sense. So we will be changing the cut-off date to 1970 in future issues.

While on the subject of the magazine’s contents, we’ve had quite a few answers to my plea from last month on what you’d like to see. Firstly, in the past, readers of HC have never been terribly interested in American vehicles. However, it would appear from people I’ve spoken to that you don’t mind them so much in Classic Truck.

And so you’ll find one in this issue – but it’s a bit different to what you may think. The article in question has been written by Ed Burrows and covers Macks made and/or used in Australia. This includes some Aussie specials that have no American equivalent. It’s a really fascinating piece on vehicles made to operate in some of the most extreme conditions on the planet.

Now comes a suggestion sent in by several readers that I never even thought of, and I’d like to ask your opinion. The subject is truck racing. The only time I’ve ever seen a truck race was many years ago on ‘World of Sport’, and to be honest I’ve never thought much about HGV racing since. But it seems popular with a lot of people, and in years past, the sport had celebrity drivers taking part, like ex-motorcycle world champion Barry Sheene. As well as circuit racing, there are events such as the Paris-Dakar, where the likes of Mercedes Unimogs battle it out with six-wheel drive MANs across the Sahara. It’s certainly different and if there’s enough interest, I’ll see what we can come up with.

Cheers,

Steve Pullen