A Diamond T in the rough

  Here's another hauler for Robb Mariani and his American Trucker crew to inspect when they get to Cuba. This bruiser, advertised on Revolico.com, is a 1952 Diamond T dump truck.
  Built in Chicago, the Diamond T was known as "the Cadillac of trucks."  These days, of course, Cadillac makes its own trucks, or at least sport-utilities, but it was strictly a passenger car producer throughout the Diamond T's 62-year run.
  Diamond T also started as a carbuilder. C.A. Tilt, son of a successful shoe manufacturer, founded the Diamond T Motor Car Co. in 1905 to make four-cylinder roadsters. In 1911, after assembling a truck at the request of a customer who owned a plumbing supply company, Tilt decided that commercial vehicles represented a better opportunity and shifted his production exclusively to trucks. Tilt's enterprise would become one of the largest independent truck builders in the United States, turning out some 250,000 vehicles over more than five decades.

  Diamond Ts were celebrated as much for their styling flair as their solid construction. Radiators and windshields were raked for a streamlined appearance, while chrome-slatted grilles and other slashes of brightwork  announced that these were machines of value and substance. Backing up that assertion were heavy-gauge steel bodies, carefully formed to reduce wind noise, and massive frames supported by long, easy-riding springs and advanced rubber bushings.
    After the Second World War, however, independent truck companies had increasing difficulty competing with the lower-priced commercial products of the big automakers, which could draw on huge economies of scale. In 1958 Diamond T was acquired by the White Motor Co. It survived as a separate nameplate until White merged it in 1967 with another subsidiary, REO, to build trucks under the Diamond Reo banner. That company declared bankruptcy in 1975.
  The Diamond T shown here, probably from the manufacturer's 622 series, appears more solid than stylish. Its chrome grille is long gone, and its crude and massive replacement bumper looks ready to plow snow, should it ever snow in Cuba.
  In place of the original overhead-valve, six-cylinder "Super-Service" gas engine (built for Diamond T by the Continental Motors Co.) is a Ukrainian KrAZ diesel. The transmission is also from KrAZ, and the differential  from Fiat.
   Asking price for this hefty machine, according to the Revolico listing, is 25,000 CUC. That's $25,000 in either U.S. or Canadian currency, given today's exchange rates.
   A lot, perhaps, if this were some other brand from 1952   but not so much for the Cadillac of trucks.

Learn more about Diamond T at:
Diamondclassics.com

And see photos of Diamond Ts, Diamond Reos and many, many more trucks at:
Hankstruckpictures.com

It's a Gurgel!

   I'd almost given up hope of identifying the car in this photo, first posted here nearly two years ago. But now Justino Silva Jr. has come to the rescue. This perky little buggy, Justino tells us, is a Gurgel X-12.
   Gurgel?
   Little known outside Latin America, Gurgel, I've discovered, has huge significance in Brazil. Gurgel Motors was founded in São Paulo in 1969 by João Augusto Conrado do Amaral Gurgel, a mechanical engineer and electrician whose life mission was to build a genuinely Brazilian vehicle.
   Gurgel began, however, with some German help, basing his first, dune buggy-style models on the Volkswagen running gear that so suited the light off-roaders. In the early 1970s he introduced the four-place Xavante, still using VW's air-cooled rear engine and other mechanicals. The Xavante evolved into the 1975 X-10, joined that same year by a heftier military version that also would be sold to the public as the X-12.
   With the Xavante came two notable innovations.The first was the fiberglass-and-steel composition of its unibody. This strong, rust-resistant material was patented by Gurgel as Plasteel.
   The second was Selectraction, which allowed the driver to pull levers next to the parking brake to stop a spinning rear wheel and direct more power to the opposing wheel.Gurgel fans say Selectraction provided near four-wheel-drive traction without 4WD's cost and added weight. Today, automatically controlled forms of this system are found in cars around the globe.

João Gurgel and the BR-800. Source unknown.

   The X-12 would be Gurgel's most popular model, staying in production through several redesigns until 1988. Added to the original soft-top configuration was the TR hardtop and, my favourite, the pickup-like X-12 RM.
   But Gurgel, who regularly compared himself to Henry Ford, still envisioned that all-Brazilian car that any of his countrymen could afford -- a modern Model T. In 1988, he finally realized his dream with the BR-800, a tiny "city car" with Plasteel body and a water-cooled, two-cylinder engine designed by Gurgel and called the Enertron. Its electronic ignition system, again patented by the Brazilian engineer, did not require a distributor.
   Though crude compared to city cars from the big automakers, the BR-800 was in early demand for its nationalist appeal. But sales fell off when the Brazilian government ended a tax break that had given it an edge over the Fiat Uno, Chevrolet Chevette and other rivals.

A memorable Gurgel truck. Photo source unknown.

   An upgraded model called the Supermini was not enough to save Gurgel Motors from declaring bankruptcy in 1993.

   João Gurgel, who died in 2009, produced some 40,000 vehicles, from the snappy X-10 and X-12 to his city cars to a fleet of small trucks and vans  many of those decidedly odd-looking  and even to an electric car.

   Like so many larger-than-life figures in auto history, Gurgel's contributions are still debated. Some Brazilians remember him as a noble dreamer, ahead of his time with his ideas for automotive efficiency. To others, however, he was a self-aggrandizer whose successes came only because of his government's protectionist policies of the day.
   But his real legacy, of course, is the Gurgel cars that still roll on. Like the X-12 I watched drive by in Havana, a sight Justino Silva Jr. calls "unbelievable."
   Ah, but this is Cuba, where car stories and mysteries abound.

Read more about João Gurgel and Gurgel  Motors:

English:

Autosavant:Genius or Joker? João Gurgel and the Lost Cars of Brazil

Mark Holston, Model T for Modern Times

Portuguese:

gurgelmotores.vilabol.uol.com.br

www.gurgelclube.com.br

And see Justino Silva Jr.'s extensive collection of photos of the unique-to-Brazil Ford Corcel:

www.fotolog.com/fordcorcel

Back in the picture

Appears that most of the photos on CARISTAS disappeared overnight, due to me fiddling with the confusing settings at the Picasa site where blogger.com images are archived. I've learned my lesson. They should all be back now.

Mr. Mariani, your trucks await

 
    My dream episode of American Trucker takes irrepressible host Robb Mariani to Cuba, where he can exclaim over the island's wondrous collection of old and new haulers.
    Not likely, I know.

    Cuba might be OK with it (with Cuba, you never know), but the Speed specialty channel  corporate cousin to Fox News  and its advertisers would almost certainly have, shall we say, concerns.

Mariani, a guy who wears the American flag on his sleeve, might hold his own objections to setting a show in a country that has been at odds with the United States longer than the majority of Americans and Cubans have been alive.
    But I think his passion for trucks, and his desire to tell the stories of trucks and truckers and their too-often-unsung contributions to our world, would override any political considerations. And let's remember that he recently took viewers to Mexico, which, while not Cuba, is certainly not the U.S., either.
   If you do get to Cuba, Robb, I've found a few trophies on Revolico, the Cuban version of Craigslist, that should interest you. They aren't the big rigs you love best, but I think you'll still agree that these are pretty cool.

  
The 1952 Ford above, also shown at the beginning of this post, has been converted to a 100-passenger bus. It has a diesel engine from Russian manufacturer Kamaz, a Kamaz transmission and a Fiat differential. The asking price is 38,000 Cuban convertible pesos (CUC), the equivalent of $38,000 U.S. Trucks don't run cheap in Cuba.

 
For 18,000 CUC  firm  this 1949 International comes with six gallons of paint and enough spare parts to almost build another truck, the seller says. It has an engine from Spanish manufacturer Pegaso, a "KP3" transmission that may be from a Ukrainian KrAZ truck, a Fiat differential and air brakes.

  Another '52 Ford, this bus conversion has a Pegaso Comet engine, a Kamaz gearbox and a Russian ZIL differential and subframe. It rides on six new tires. Asking price: 17,000 CUC.