INTERNATIONAL TRUCK STOP
Story by Will Shiers
Photos supplied
GOT THE CREAM Will Shiers gets a closer look at the new XG+ on a 400km drive from Frankfurt, Germany, to DAF’s head office in Eindhoven, in the Netherlands.
W
hen I was a child, we had a ginger cat called Tiddles. He was as hard as nails and loved nothing more than getting into a good scrap. But as tough as he was, all this fighting took its toll, and he carried plenty of battle scars. Most prominent of these were his two missing ears. As I stand in a German aircraft hangar, looking at a line-up of the new DAF XF, XG and XG+ trucks, deciding which one I want to drive first, I’m reminded of Tiddles. The only difference is, unlike him, the lack of side protrusions rather suit the New
Generation DAFs. Before starting my 400km drive through Germany, Belgium and on to DAF’s HQ in Eindhoven, I take a good look at the exterior. The Digital Vision System, which replaces conventional mirrors with external cameras and screens (see sidebar), is one of many fresh design approaches on this latest family of trucks. In fact, everything about the cabs is new, with no carry-over features at all. But the fact that it doesn’t pay homage to its predecessor is no bad thing. After 34 years, an entirely fresh start was needed. Automotive designers often talk about ‘clean sheets of paper’, but in reality, such a thing rarely exists in the world of truck design. Most are forced to adapt an existing body, while even those with entirely new cabs must work within the strict confines of long-established maximum dimensions. DAF’s designers, however, did start with something resembling a clean
sheet. Several years ago, the European Commission announced that it would be introducing new mass and dimension legislation, allowing slightly longer cabs to improve fuel consumption, safety and driver comfort. The new DAFs are the first trucks to take advantage of these changes. Ron Borsboom, director of product development at DAF Trucks, tells me: “We couldn’t take our existing cab and make it longer, so we started from scratch. This was a unique opportunity for us – to design and build a completely new class of truck.” At the start, almost nothing was ruled out. DAF even built a working prototype with an exaggerated protruding nose, reminiscent of a high-speed train. But this was dismissed when it was discovered that the aerodynamic gains were barely any better than when using a more subtle bulge. It was also less manoeuvrable and heavier. The final design, on the front of all three New Generation trucks (XF, XG and
