Jean-Marie Bourat has a tiger on his tank

RoadStars meets

Not at all an old banger.

"Actually I like modern trucks. When I got this old banger I wasn't very pleased at first," says Jean-Marie Bourat. By "old banger", the driver means the Mercedes-Benz semitrailer tractor unit that looks like a racing truck but isn't.


"In day-to-day use I noticed that my old banger is actually a great truck."

– Jean-Marie Bourat, Fleet Manager with a racing truck replica


It's a replica of one of those Atego racing trucks, which the Dehnhardt Tiger Racing Team drove in the 1990s for Mercedes-Benz and with which they won the European championship. Under the colourful metal and the SK driver's cab, there's a regular Actros.

It now pulls semitrailers to the French equivalent of the MOT (Contrôle Technique) every day. "I drive between 100 and 200 kilometres, sometimes 300 kilometres, for example when I have to deliver a semitrailer," says Jean-Marie. Although the semitrailer tractor unit is a vintage vehicle, the clock only shows a modest 640,000 kilometres.



His children have priority.

The short tours suit Jean-Marie perfectly. Since becoming a father, he's stopped going on long routes. "The deal was: my wife was only prepared to have kids if I was home every evening." So that's why Jean-Marie now mainly looks after the fleet at BFT.

His wife also said: "When the two children have grown up, you can be away again if you like." He's pleased about that, because he misses arterial routes. If, once in a while, he can drive seven or eight hours in one go and sleep in the cab, it feels like a holiday for him.



An "old banger" with lots of options.

Instead of driving around with a high-performance new generation Actros like the other drivers, Jean-Marie more or less drives around in circles in Lyon. He's grown very fond of the "old banger". "It has a few features that are really practical," says 34-year-old Jean-Marie. "For example one of the trailer brakes you can't get fitted any more." It means you can brake the semitrailer without blocking the tractor unit. For Jean-Marie it's a great advantage, because this means he can warm up this type of trailer brakes, which have seized after having stood for a long time, and free them again.

"Also, the truck has hydraulic equipment. That even makes it possible to pull a tipper semitrailer." And if ever the transmission should cause trouble, the "old banger" has a spare. "In day-to-day use I noticed that my old banger is actually a great truck."


Photos: Alex Kraus

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