155 tons of French engineering
On October 2, 1957, the real giant Berliet T100 was presented at the Paris Motor Show, which for many years became the largest car in the world. The French skillfully took advantage of the non-standard dimensions and appearance of the car and with might and main unleashed an advertising campaign around the big man.
The three-axle bonnet truck managed to visit, in addition to the Paris Exhibition, the Geneva Motor Show, at the shows in Helsinki, Grenoble, Avignon and even Casablanca. In many ways, this is what made the car the most famous among the entire Berliet range.
It is noteworthy that such a massive vehicle had nothing to do with either military developments or special equipment for extreme travel. Still, the French military could not use a machine nearly five meters wide in a cramped European country. And four-wheel drive was not always needed. For example, look at the 1968 Berliet TF (8x4) tractor as part of the VTE road train, designed to transport missiles to underground silos. A typical road truck designed exclusively for the flat roads of the European continent. Therefore, the sand-colored Berliet T100 was not intended for the armies of the NATO countries, but carried out the transport tasks of the Shell oil fields on the African continent.
A little about the overall parameters and potential capabilities of this French big guy. The width in the sources indicated is different, so we will focus on the range of 4800-4960 mm. The height also varies from 3980 to 5400 mm, but this is a consequence of the differences in the design of the four versions of the machine. More precisely, not even four performances, but four released copies. At the time of its publication, the Berliet T100 was not only the largest truck in the world, but also, perhaps, the rarest - the company limited itself to only four assembled vehicles. Was it originally planned or the car failed at the box office, is still not known for certain. The company itself merged with Renault at one time. A modest reminder of the once legendary brand is only the storage facility of the Berliet Foundation in Le Montelier. It is there that the only remaining truck in France with serial number 2 is now stored - it was shown last year in Paris on the Retromobile.
In order for such a machine to move, and even carry fifty tons (according to other sources, no more than 40 tons) of cargo, it needs a serious power unit. The French in the 50s did not have a suitable engine, they had to buy an American Cummins V12 diesel with a working volume of 28 liters, with two turbochargers and an initial capacity of 600 hp. with. The first giant even bore a corresponding name - Berliet T100-600. By the way, there was one more motor, but it had nothing to do with the transmission, but served the brake system, power steering and was responsible for recharging the batteries. The role of the auxiliary power unit was played by the native French Panhard Dyna with a working volume of 850 cm3.
All these engines were powered by two 950-liter tanks, and the control fuel consumption was quite comparable to the tank one - 90 liters per 100 km. The main habitat of the Berliet T100 was still sandy expanses, where, when loaded, the diesel consumed more than 240 liters per 100 km. By the way, you can safely add several dozen liters of Berliet Gazelle diesel fuel to this consumption, which had to follow its monstrous owner relentlessly. This "squire" was carrying a spare wheel, a huge jack and other tools.
The French, apparently, did not really think about the economic efficiency of their own creation - after all, the oil company acted as the customer. Perhaps the most efficient from the point of view of the economy was the third built instance with a tipper body. The front-wheel drive was taken away from the car, instead of the automatic reversible (four gears forward and the same backward) Clark transmission, they put the mechanics and brought the total weight to 155 tons with a carrying capacity of 80 tons. Such a Berliet T100, which looked more like a mining dump truck, had the status of a prototype and has not survived to this day - in 1978 it was recycled for scrap. He never had time to visit Africa, only worked a little on road construction at home and served for some time as an outlandish attraction.
The Greatest Car in the World
After numerous promotions and demonstrations to the general public, as well as to potential buyers, the first two cars produced in the fall of 1958 went for testing in French Saint-Priest. Engineers, among other things, experimented with twin wheels on the rear axles, but the flotation performance was unsatisfactory. In addition, they did not decide what to do with another giant spare wheel (height 2, 2 meters), which was inevitable in the case of a new configuration. One "page" in the form of a Berliet Gazelle would not have been enough. It is worth mentioning separately that the French could not implement on their, as they called it, "the greatest car in the world", a centralized pumping system. It is quite possible that this would save engineers from the need to install such large wheels with a specific ground pressure of no more than a kilogram per square centimeter. Recall that at about the same time in the USSR, a much more massive ZIL-157, equipped with tire inflation in the basic version, went into mass production. The wheels on the Berliet T100 were really impressive. Each such tonne piece was originally manufactured by Goodyear, and later Michelin developed a unique “Special sable” of low pressure and a width of about a meter.
After the tests in Saint-Priest, it was understood that the 600-horsepower diesel engine was not enough for the truck. At the head plant in Monplaisir, the engine underwent modernization, with the help of a change in the gas distribution mechanism, the power was immediately raised to 700 liters. with. Now the colossus could accelerate to 34 km / h, which was very dangerous for others. The fact is that the driver, due to the giant bonnet, saw practically nothing for several meters in front of the radiator grill. Somehow the hefty pins with lanterns in the wings helped to feel the dimensions, but a mechanical siren with a heartbreaking voice became the main means of rescuing unlucky pedestrians and small ungulates. And of course, the most powerful head lighting created such a bright light flux that Berliet T100 could be seen at night, probably from a satellite. By the way, the satellite can see the second surviving giant at number 1, installed as a monument in the Algerian Hassi Messaoud, almost in the middle of the desert under the open sky.
The dry African climate turned out to be an excellent preservative for the French giant, and the car invariably attracts a few tourists with its size. This copy came to Algeria at the very end of the 50s and until 1962, together with machine number 2, worked on the drilling rigs of French oil companies. The flatbed truck could handle a 20-ton pump along with a 35-ton winch while successfully storming sand dunes with a 26% lift. It must be said that the sands were truly quick-moving: where the laden Berliet passed, a person went into the sand knee-deep. But in 1962, Algeria declared independence, and two cars became the property of the new owner from Sonatrach. The French were never able to get the first truck produced from Africa and, with great difficulty, took out the second copy in disrepair only in the early 70s. It was he who frightened the French with the smoky exhaust at the exhibition of retro technology last year.
When it became clear that there was nothing more to do in the African market, Berliet engineers offered the giant a new cabover layout. The car received its own name Tulsa and was clearly aimed at the overseas market. Berliet Tulsa was supposed to become a huge tractor and plow the endless expanses of the United States with its 100-ton carcass. The roads of such a car would obviously not have survived, so the French assumed that it would be enough for the Tulsa road train to just point a point on the map and the car would get to it along the shortest path. For example, across the prairie of North America. Naturally, such a craving for gigantism overseas was not appreciated, and the French disposed of the tractor for scrap.
The most interesting thing is that the Berliet T100 concept was flawed from the very beginning. Mere scaling up (or hypertrophying) of the classic truck concept might be successful in the African continent, but not in the developed Western world. While in the Soviet Union they developed the most technically complex rocket carriers and tank carriers of the MAZ brand (the notorious "Hurricane" among them), in France they were frankly marking time. Actually, this was one of the reasons why very few people know about Berliet now. "The greatest car in the world" turned out to be of no use to anyone …
