Skip to main content

#ThrowbackThursday; Clarkes of London Setra


#ThrowbackThursday People often say to me ‘Luke, as the countries, nay Europes, nay the entire planets most respected, most famous and frankly most brilliantly skilled driver, what is the favourite vehicle you’ve ever driven’.* Most expect it to be one of the great many 750’s or V8 Scanias a man of my standing has obviously driven but no, honestly it’s always been this. I even preferred it to Clarke’s newer Setras. There was just something so right about it, from the four over four gear-change to the smoothness. If you don’t know about coaches there are two types, ones where a body is put on a manufacturers chassis, likes of Plaxton etc or these, integrals, don’t have a separate chassis and the manufacturer just buys in running gear. On Setras it’s Mercedes, the other intergrals, Bova/VDL use DAF, also great to drive, been many places across Europe in Bovas. For me rear engines are by far best, much better driving experience and more room for luggage. So yeah, this, athough not much in it as I can find the best in any vehicle usually, but I know full well if I were to drive this now, 20 years later it wouldn’t be a patch on new. I’m not one blinded by rose tinted specs😂 What’s yours?



Comments

Popular posts from this blog

A SHORT DAF XF REVIEW

DAF Review So, one of most common questions I'm asked lately is what I think of the DAF. Obviously for a long time time I've mostly driven Volvos and Scanias and before this job it was well over a decade since I last tramped full time in a DAF (for HSF). As you know though I had driven later models and hated the body XF with a passion!  When the current version came out DAF seemed very confidant it would change my mind about them in our Twitter exchanges but I thought how different can it be? The answer? A lot. In some ways its like a completely different truck despite being almost identical in looks. Firstly- the gearbox. The auto on previous DAFs was a fupping disaster and everyone knew it! Show, jerky and just generally rubbish in a way no auto should be this late in the day. That's completely changed, for the vast majority of the time it's indistinguishable from an iShift (that having long been the good standard). Yes it has its odd moments but they are very rare an...

FAT LORRY DRIVERS...

Good day to you. So there I am, lying on my bed reading Truck & Driver and I come across a piece about a subject close to my heart. If you visit this website then you will know full well how much I try to prove to drivers that eating well is a simple important task. This particular piece in T&D is about Mercedes and their efforts to design trucks for the obese. Apparently 42% of lorry drivers in the UK have a waist of over 38 inches. The article details how Mercedes go about designing trucks for the overweight. Fine, a truck should be designed for all its users. But it got me thinking why don't they do something about stopping drivers getting fat, then, oh wait, I see a bit about this very thing. Well done Mercedes, lets see, what is it you are gonna do..... Oh, put a few faddy exercise gadgets in there. And charge a hundred quid for them. Now fine, no other manufacturer seems to be doing anything at all, but this is just pathetic I'm sorry. This relies on bosses buying...

#DriverShortage; New Video Midday Sunday

Good evening all. I hope your weekend is going to plan. Just to say there will be a new #DriverShortage video midday tomorrow talking about the proposed driving test changes and a life and DVLA update (nothing overly exciting alas). For now here’s some recent pictures of evil juggernauts thundering through town piloted by lunatics. #Shocking. Have a good evening chums www.buymeacoffee.com/lukevernon   https://linktr.ee/lorrydriverdotcom     Buy me a coffee