The Turkish BMC Chronicle

Page 3

By Steve St.Schmidt (Berlin 2024)

The Levend and the Pininfarina generation

In addition to trucks, BMC also offered delivery vans. They were available with and without hoods. Under the model name Levend, BMC built a variant of the Leyland Sherpa, which rolled off the production line in the UK from 1974 to 1981 and was built as the Freight Rover from 1982 and finally as the LDV Pilot until 2005.

The Leyland Sherpa was available in its original form in the UK from 1974 to 1981. It was later marketed as the Freight Rover and then as the LDV, whereby the design of the front end changed. In Turkey, the Sherpa was the basis for a series that was built until the noughties of this century. The photo was taken by Alex Cunningham.
Two photos of the BMC Levend: above the first version with square radiator grille, below the last version after a facelift in 2001.

The Turkish BMC Levend was available in the first version with a rectangular radiator grille from 1992 to 2001. The van with the short hood then received a facelift with a redesigned grille and technical improvements until production was discontinued in 2010. The cab-over version of the Levend was available from 1995, and after a facelift in 2001 it was also available until 2010.

The Levend was also available as a cab-over: above in its original form, below with a modernized appearance from 2001.

In 1989, BMC was taken over by the Turkish conglomerate Çukurova Holding. The company continued to grow and expand, and in 1990 began manufacturing military vehicles for the Turkish armed forces. In 1993, the company name was changed to "BMC Otomotiv Sanayi ve Ticaret A.Ş." The abbreviation means "Anonim Şirket" and is the legal form of a Turkish joint stock company. The company name can be translated as "BMC Automotive Industry and Trading Ltd".

The cab of the BMC Profesyonel was designed by Pininfarina. It was presented at the IAA 1996 in Hanover and caused quite a stir (photo above). The futuristic design was well received on the roads of Turkey.

The Profesyonel series was the first truck series to be produced under Turkish industrial rule, as the BMC advertisement stated. BMC had already signed a cooperation agreement with the renowned Italian design studio Pininfarina in 1990 for the design of the extravagantly styled cab.

With the Profesyonel 518, BMC also offered a local transport version of the modern-design truck from 2001.
In Turkey, trucks are often equipped with additional axles. The three photos from 2022 show examples of the BMC Profesyonel as a four-axle vehicle with typical Turkish high-sided platform bodies.

As a result of six years of development work and an investment of 120 million US dollars, BMC launched the new truck series on the market in January 1997. It had achieved international recognition and brought worldwide prestige to the Turkish automotive industry, according to BMC's advertising for the new models, which were equipped with 5.9-liter Cummins B-series diesel engines.

From 1998 to 2003, the BMC Professional was offered in Great Britain by ERF with the model designation "EP 6". Then the last independent British truck brand ERF began to disintegrate and BMC founded a British subsidiary to sell the trucks directly. With the start of exports in 2003, the BMC brand returned to the UK after not being seen on British roads since the late 1960s.

From 1998, the BMC Profesyonel was also offered in the UK for five years, albeit not under its own brand name, but as the ERF EP 6. The financial difficulties that BMC encountered in Turkey put an end to its British presence.