Berliet GBC8 6x6 Gazelle

The Berliet GBC8 6x6 Gazelle was a medium tonnage all terrain truck derived from the Berliet GLR, shown by Berliet in October 1957 and built in about 32,000 examples until 1977 at Vénissieux and Bourg-en-Bresse. It began when Paul Berliet drove a GLB 4x4 in the Sahara in 1956 and found it badly balanced and underpowered for oil industry work in the desert, so Jean Girard designed a small truck with three single axles and an even spread of weight. The civil version carried a five cylinder diesel of 7,917 cc and 125 horsepower, while the French army took a multi fuel version, the GBC 8 KT, to replace the wartime GMC CCKW. Nine Gazelles crossed the Sahara in the Berliet-Ténéré mission of November 1959 to January 1960 with the writer Roger Frison-Roche. The truck also drove through the film Cent mille dollars au soleil, and rebuilt army examples later became the Renault GBC 180.