Berliet T100 (A ship of the desert for a sea of sand)

The Berliet T100 truck of the French Berliet house, in the 1950s the T100 was the world's largest truck produced in only 4 units, it was used for oil exploration in the south of Algeria and is part of the heritage Sonatrach and ENMTP since one of the four copies is exposed to the headquarters of the general management of the company National Works Well, witness another era of oil exploration in our country.
Its fuel consumption is very high, which it has been replaced by other vehicles.
According to Paul Berliet, the idea of ​​designing a giant truck, capable of carrying heavy indivisible masses necessary for the activities of oil research, was born in December 1956, while flying over the western part of the Sahara.
On this vast "ocean" wrinkled with high dunes - the barkanes - it was necessary "a ship of high edge", equipped with capacities of crossing adapted to bring its cargo to port.
9 months later, in October 1957, the first prototype of the T100 leaves workshops Berliet Monplaisir (Lion): it will be the star of the Paris Motor Show, October 15, 1960 the Berliet T100 is shipped from Marseille to join the technical bases of Ouargla.
Surpassing by American technology, the Berliet T100 was removed from circulation and put on display in 1969, to be which this truck was replaced by other American machines like Kenworth: much more economical, powerful and more robust.
Narrower than the American Kenworth, the T100 remains one of the world's largest trucks ever used in oil exploration in southern Algeria.
(T100 # 2 was donated to the Berlier Foundation in France and renovated, T100 # 3 and # 4 were destroyed).

Technical sheet:

• Cylinder V-12 engine at 60 ° CUMMINGS diesel type VT12bi with 30 liters displacement (28022 cm 3)
• 2 exhaust turbochargers (1 per group of 6 cylinders)
• Power: 600, then 700 hp
• Total weight: 101 tons
• length: 15,30 m
• width: 4.98 m
• height 4.43 m
• Maximum speed: 34 km / h
• Maximum speed (on the road): 45 km / h
• Fuel consumption:
  90 liters / 100 km - on the road and 240 liters / 100 km - on sand