Deals on Wheels #469

New DEALS
Of course, much has changed since then.
Big time! In Freightliner’s case, some of the
FLC112’s successors didn’t endure nearly
so well while, on the cab-over front, Argosy
failed to achieve its full potential despite an
innovative design several generations ahead
of anything else in the US cab-over class. In
many estimations, including this one, Argosy
will long be remembered as a case of ‘what
might have been’.
Yet, in the conventional class, no brand
in the world today reflects the extent of
technological transformation over the past
four decades than Freightliner, capped by the
current Cascadia.
And, strangely perhaps, it was in the
backblocks of far western NSW where this
transformation recently found function and
form like nowhere else.
FORTY-YEAR FLASHBACK
It all started with a phone image of an old red
truck and being casually asked by Stephen
Downes, the head of Freightliner in Australia:
“Do you remember this truck?”
“Yeah, I do. It’s one of the two original
Freightliners brought here in the early ‘80s
for testing.”
From that moment, it took only a
nanosecond for an idea to gain traction: what
better way to get a hands-on appreciation for
the advances in truck technology over the
past 40 years or so than to run an old banger
like this 1982 FLC120 alongside a premium
Cascadia?
And what better place to do it than the
backblocks around Silverton, a quirky and
remote little village in far western NSW where
the past lingers gritty and real among the
earthy ruins of early enterprise?
Thankfully, Downes agreed and, some
months later, with chilled desert winds
whirling under a bright and cloudless sky,
two very different Freightliners rolled into
this time-warped town.
Despite a good deal of restorative work,
the old banger still needed to be treated
kindly. After enduring the uncompromising
rigours of its original life as a test unit, the
truck had spent much of its long existence
delivering bus chassis around the nation for
Mercedes-Benz Australia and its later Daimler
descendant, all the while acquiring further
data on Australian highway operations for
feedback to Freightliner.
Originally a slimline unit, a 28-inch (71cm)
There’s a lot to be said for
the satisfaction and pride of
a drive down memory lane,
as long as the lane’s not too
long. Driving was simply
harder work back then
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