Rolling legend - A MAN 620 L1

Veterans of the classic vehicle scene have known this truck for a long time: the yellow cab-behind-engine MAN truck has been in collectors’ hands since 1979. It still wears its first paint finish with style.

This MAN 620 L1 rolled off the production line in Munich in 1956. It was registered on 17 April of the same year in Aachen, North Rhine-Westphalia. Its first registration number was BR 184-863. BR stands for British Rhineland. After the Second World War, Germany was divided into the occupation zones of the four victorious powers. North Rhine-Westphalia was under the control of the British.

Ketschenburg Brauerei GmbH in Stolberg was the first owner of the square-bonnet truck. This is also confirmed by the vehicle registration document. The name of the brewery, which no longer exists today, is written in large red letters on the yellow-painted truck. With its typical beer vehicle body with round railings on the platform, the vehicle carried countless beer barrels through the Rhineland region in the years that followed. The MAN truck was in use at the brewery until the 1970s, before a collector bought it in 1979.

Retirement? No thanks!

The MAN continued to work for this classic vehicle fan near Aachen. It underwent a few repairs and given a minor visual upgrade. Many other classic vehicles were attached to its trailer coupling, which the collector saved from scrap yards and freight forwarders. The classic truck scene was still in its infancy around 45 years ago. With its 6-cylinder D1246M4 engine with a displacement of 8.3 litres and 120 hp, the 11.5-tonne truck was quite well powered for the time. The oldie therefore did not hold up the traffic too much. Back then, the upper limit of power for modern trucks was still far from today’s 600 hp and more.

In the mid-1990s, the 620 changed owners again. The Aachen-based fan's collection had grown considerably, so space was scarce. That’s why the collector sold the front-engine truck to a museum in the Frankfurt area. Timo Pistorius was able to purchase the truck from this museum in 2019. It is now part of his collection in the Veteranenhalle in Selters in the Westerwald in Rhineland-Palatinate.

A true original

Most classic vehicles that were recovered by collectors at roughly the same time as this MAN were then restored several times. This is often due to a change of owner. In different colours and designs, such trucks were repeatedly seen at classic vehicle meetings in Germany

This MAN, on the other hand, is a genuine original. It still bears its first paintwork with style and was preserved with plenty of feeling and consideration. That’s why it was a big surprise – especially for long-standing members of the classic truck scene – when the “Ketschenburg” came to light again: It actually still looks like it did 45 years ago.