June 28, 2009

Ebro F-108

A little history

It’ll be brief as, to say the truth, I don’t know much about this vehicle…

The F-108 light truck replaced the Alfa Romeo-based F-100 in 1971. It was barely a facelifted version of its predecessor, powered by a Perkins engine – the Spanish branch of this diesel specialist having been quite conveniently taken over by Ebro during the previous decade. With 1760 cc and a 22:1 compression ratio, this inline four, dubbed the “4108” – hence the new vehicle’s name – promised 48.5 hp DIN. Spain being relatively closed to imports at that time, the F-108’s success was guaranteed.

Though Nissan gradually took over Ebro during the Eighties, the old truck remained in production, though modernized several times. Under the name Nissan Trade, it was built until 2002.

About the models

Model: Ebro F-108
Year: c.1971
Maker: Ixo
Scale: 1/43
Distributed by: Altaya as no.32 of its Furgonetas de Antaños press series
Acquired: new with neither box nor stand (probably a production overrun or quality control reject), in January 2007, in Hong Kong, S.A.R.

Definitely an original model for a non-Spanish collector – too bad then Altaya reserved to the sole Spain the series for which it has been made… Nice decoration and correct quality at an affordable price: 12/20. Note that other variants of this Ebro have been distributed by Altaya, but unfortunately all of them too were only sold within Spain.

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