Truck Of The Day: May 13, 2011 (Belated)

Today's car of the day is Wiking's 1974 MAN 19-320.

MAN Truck & Bus AG (formerly MAN Nutzfahrzeuge AG) is the largest subsidiary of the MAN SE corporation and one of the leading international providers of commercial vehicles. Headquartered in Munich, Germany, MAN Truck & Bus produces trucks in the range from 7.49 to 44 t gvw, heavy goods vehicles up to 250 t road train gvw, bus-chassis, coaches, interurban coaches and city buses. MAN Truck & Bus also produces diesel- and natural-gas engines.

Trucks and buses of the product brand MAN and buses of the product brand NEOPLAN (VIP Class buses) belong to the MAN Nutzfahrzeuge Group.

On 1 January 2011, MAN Nutzfahrzeuge (literally: commercial vehicles) was renamed as MAN Truck & Bus to better reflect the company's products on the international market.

For more information and pictures of the real car please visit: MAN F8 & Aral

Another hard one to find information on- one site has this listed as a 19-230 but I couldn't find picture proof that such a model exists.  Since the model numbers go by engine/horsepower all on the same basic frame, I'm going to go with a model designation I can find visual proof of existing on the F8 chassis.  This one is all plastic and 1/87 scale- similar in size to Matchbox Convoys.

Aral is a brand of automobile fuels and gas stations, present in Germany and Luxembourg, but formerly used in most countries of Western and Central Europe. The company behind the brand name, Aral AG (previously Veba Öl AG), is owned by BP, but was established in 1898 as Westdeutsche Benzol-Verkaufs-Vereinigung GmbH. The Aral brand was introduced in 1924 and is a portmanteau of the German words "Aromaten" and "Aliphaten", alluding to the aromatic and aliphatic components found in gasoline, respectively.

On July 15, 2001, it was agreed that 51% of the stakes in Veba Öl AG would be acquired by Deutsche BP AG. Beginning February 1, 2002, the acquisition was completed. The Aral brand name was retained, and 650 BP stations in Germany were rebranded to Aral. 6 BP branded filling stations remained operational in Germany to protect the company's rights to the name, while elsewhere, as Poland and Austria, the Aral stations were switched to BP. In some countries the Aral national chains were sold. Aral's slogan is "Alles super".