Renault’s G260 won the 1983 Truck of the Year (IToY) award by a surprising margin, enjoying little in the way of expectation at the shortlisting stage, but winning the 13 judges over with operational feedback in its first year of service.
The G260 was regarded as the first genuinely new product from Renault Véhicules Industriels following the eight-year merger between the Berliet and Saviem marques, and scored an impressive 53 points, knocking the Scania P and R ranges into second place for a second time with 40 points, with the DAF 2500 coming home in third place with 30 points.
The Scania’s performance might be surprising, but the judges apparently regarded the 2-Series models as heavy with questionable transmissions, and the new intercooled models were ineligible until 1984.
The new Renault was seen as new class of vehicle – both a 38-tonner with the capacity for heavy work across long distances, but also light and compact enough to be a strong proposition for city distribution work. Road tests revealed the G260 to be “quite out of the ordinary in the fields of economy, payload and earning ability” and so the unassuming French truck nailed the “greatest contribution towards the economics of the carriage of goods by road” criteria.
The G260 cab was of course a development of the “Club of Four” design, but Renault’s engineers had adopted a wider and lower interpretation of the concept than that used by Volvo on its 1979’s award-winning F7.
The RVI cab was not new though, and had already appeared on both Saviem and Berliet-branded vehicles on the continent, and on the TF 231 model which was a 32-tonner designed specifically for the British market and announced in September 1979.
At the heart of the of the G260 was the MIDR 06.20.45 engine. This 9.8-litre, 6-cylinder turbocharged and charge-cooled, 260hp motor was a long-stroke development of an earlier Berliet design which retained a minimum of 725lb/ft torque across the 950rpm-1,850rpm working range.
The mechanical specification was completed with Renault’s own 9-speed B9 gearbox and a Berliet-derived hub-reduction axle with three weight ratings dependent on the national market.
The G260 arrived in Britain in July 1983, although a non-charge-cooled version of the engine, designated MIDS 06.20.45 but still rated at 260hp, was standard. UK operators were offered the 11.6-tonne rear axle with a choice of day or sleeper cabs, and even in sleeper form the 4×2 tractor weighed in at only 5.8 tonnes.
By 1984, British G260s were being assembled in the former Dodge truck factory at Dunstable, and the following year saw a change to the standard specification with the B18 18-speed gearbox and sleeper cab with revised trim becoming the norm. The more powerful G290 models were introduced in 1985.
