Volvo » L395 Titan / L495

The heaviest long nose Volvos got an indirect injection diesel in 1947 and four years later came the revised and restyled L395, appropriately better known as the Titan. This had a 9.6 litre direct injection diesel developing 150 bhp “for truly demanding applications and for hauling heavy loads (up to 18,000 kg gross plus trailer) while operating at a high economic cruising speed”. Interestingly, gearboxes came from Spicer as Volvo itself did not make anything suitable until 1956 when its K3 offered either a crawler low or overdrive high.

By then it also had its own 6x4 tandem instead of an American import and, equally importantly, since 1954 it had been offering a 185bhp turbocharged version of the 9.6 with torque increased from 59kgfm at 1100rpm to 73 at 1400rpm. Compressing more air into the firing stroke had been tried in Britain (one only has to think of Blower Bentleys), Germany and America but Volvo deserves the credit for making it reliable and long-lasting on high speed diesels.

The L395 Titan sold well until the end in 1961, and had been joined by an improved L495 in 1959 with higher GVW to 22,000 kg which carried on to 1965, by when 7108 of the former and 12,249 of the latter had been sold.