Coordinates	41°52′55″N87°37′40″N
Company name	Pegaso
Company logo
Fate	Discontinued
Successor	Iveco
Foundation	1946
Defunct	1994
Location	Barcelona, Spain
Industry	Automobile, defense, equipment
Products	Vehicles, tractors, armored cars
Num employees
Parent
Subsid	}}

Pegaso (, "Pegasus") was a Spanish make of trucks, omnibuses, tractors, armored vehicles, and, for a while, sports cars. The parent company, Enasa, was created in 1946 and based in the old Hispano-Suiza factory, under the direction of the renowned automotive engineer Wifredo Ricart. In 1990, Iveco took over Enasa, and the Pegaso name disappeared in 1994.

Enasa, a state-owned company, had its main business interest in the truck and 'bus market. Pegaso became one of the leading European industrial vehicle makers, with significant exportation to both Europe and Latin America; the Benelux, Venezuela, and Cuba were its major foreign markets, and a substantial contract to supply tactical trucks to the Egyptian Army was signed in the late 1970s.

The main Enasa factories were located in Barcelona, Madrid, and Valladolid. Between 1946 and 1990, Pegaso built more than 350,000 vehicles; the highest production in a single year, over 26,000, was achieved in 1974.

1940s

The first Enasa produced truck, a slightly modified Hispano-Suiza 66G, was the Pegaso I, of which only a few units were made (due mostly to the severe shortages of the post-war era) in 1946 and 1947. An enhanced but still petrol-engined version, the Pegaso II (model code Z-203), was launched late in 1947 and reached some hundreds of units while awaiting a much-needed diesel model. This was the Pegaso Diesel (Z-202), nicknamed ''Mofletes'' ("Chubby cheeks") for its bulbous front end, which made its debut in 1949 and quickly established itself as the leader in the still weak Spanish truck market. Artic tractor, road train, and coach or 'bus versions soon were also available, and all together they became ''El camión español'' ("The Spanish truck"), as Enasa badges and advertisements proudly stated.

1950s

Pegaso built about a hundred Z-102 sports cars in the 1950s. The cars were, in some ways, advanced for the time, as they had a five-speed gearbox and very powerful supercharged engines. In other ways they were outdated, with no disc brakes and no power steering. They were offered with the choice of Touring, Saoutchik, Serra, or Enasa's own luxury bodies.

In 1954, the old Pegaso Diesel engine was uprated to while Ricart's other masterpiece, the Pegaso Z-207 truck, was made ready to enter mass production, into which it was placed from 1955 to 1959. The model Z-207 featured a V6 engine and a corrugated-sheet cab, which was also used in other Pegaso truck models in the 1960s and 1970s. The unusual corrugated design became a characteristic sight of the Spanish landscape.

Also technically advanced was the Pegaso Z-403 Monocasco, a two-level monocoque (chassisless) coach with its diesel engine mounted amidships, built between 1951 and 1957. In these years, too, Pegaso built the more conventional Z-404 coach or urban 'bus chassis, with a striking body by Seida of Bilbao, and the Z-501 trolleybus, which featured electric equipment by Cenemesa.

In the off-road segment, the first Pegaso product was a caterpillar tractor based on technology from Vender, an Italian specialist, launched in 1957.

1960s and 1970s

In the 1960s and 1970s, Pegaso kept pace with the impressive economic development of Spain (the so-called "Spanish miracle"), and tens of thousands of Pegaso trucks and busses ran on Spanish roads and through Spanish cities and, more important, crossed borders in TIR sealed-container traffic to link the Spanish economy with the European Economic Community. The Pegaso flagship of the time was the 2011 tractor for semi-trailers. Pegaso marketed by then a full variety of commercial vehicles; at the top of the line were 8x4 rigids, 6x4 semi-trailer tractors, 6x6 off-road dumpers and military armoured vehicles, a five-axle 10x4 special conversion for the Dutch market, and three-axle articulated buses; all featured Pegaso's own engines of up to .

Production of Pegaso Monotral buses and coaches, based on an Italian Viberti design, began in 1961 and gave rise to a long line of Pegaso chassisless new models during two decades. The first of the series was the successful 6030-N coach, equipped with an underfloor horizontal engine and single-tyre rear axle, making it a very light yet full-length vehicle.

In 1963, Seida received a license from the German firm Kässbohrer to build Setra chassisless coaches. These were equipped with Pegaso engines and other mechanical units and were marketed with a double badge as the Setra Seida S14 and the Pegaso 5070. Despite being expensive, these coaches were very successful in the Spanish market and competed well with Pegaso's own Monotrals and all other conventional chassis-body models. This was the main OEM business of Pegaso; others were selling engines for railcars and shunter locomotives and providing running units and cab components to Barazábal, a Vitoria-based maker of self-propelled cranes.

In 1968, Enasa took over S.A.V.A.. A year later, the whole Sava range of light vehicles, with roots in designs by the British Motor Corporation, was rebadged as Pegaso.

In 1972, a new full range of heavy trucks was launched, featuring a spacious, modernist cubic cab. From then on, the corresponding arctic tractors, first the 2080 model and later the tilt-cab 2181, became the pervasive workhorses on Spanish highways.

On the military side, the first production tactical truck was the 1963 4x4 Pegaso 3020, replaced in 1970 by the 3045 and the 6x6 3050. Subsequent enhanced models, the 3046 and the 3055, were dominant in the Spanish Army; and the 3046 was also the subject of a substantial contract (up to 10,000 units) with the Egyptian Army. The 3046 was very common in the Spanish forest fire brigades too, where for obvious reasons it was nicknamed ''Egipcio'' ("Egyptian").

Related to the all-wheel-drive trucks were four armoured vehicle models launched by Pegaso in the late '70s: the 4x4 airborne-able 3545 BLR, the 4x4 amphibious 3550 VAP, the very successful 6x6 3560 BMR, and its derivative, the 3562 VEC, all also used in quantity by the Spanish Army.

In 1975, an agreement between Enasa and Allis-Chalmers led to production in Spain of Pegaso-engined Allis loaders and caterpillar tractors, marketed as "Pegaso-Allis". This venture lasted but a few years yet eventually allowed Pegaso to act as dealer for Spain of Italian-made Fiat-Allis construction equipment.

1980s

In the 1980s, suffering from the saturation of the European truck market, Enasa sought joint ventures with other truck makers. A failed association in 1978 with International Harvester had resulted in Enasa's taking over the British Seddon Atkinson marque, and a new Enasa subsidiary, Pegaso Agrícola, became the exclusive dealer for Spain of Case IH tractors and agricultural machinery. A similar market agreement with British-based Perkins Engines led to the creation of Pegaso Motor, exclusive dealer for Spain of Perkins marine engines.

Later, a joint venture with DAF Trucks produced the cab for new heavy models of both makes, the DAF 95 and the Pegaso Troner; both models were launched in 1987. The Seddon-Atkinson Strato used the same cab.

In rally racing, Pegaso all-wheel-drive trucks won the 1985 Rallye des Pharaons and the 1986 Paris-Dakar.

The end

After a joint takeover by Daimler-Benz and MAN aborted at the last hour, Iveco bought Enasa in 1990. At that time, Pegaso offerings included the Ekus (a light truck, actually a rebadging of the Volkswagen LT and MAN-VW G ranges), Mider (medium), Troner (heavy), Trakker (off-road), and Podium (omnibusses and coaches) ranges; a futuristic concept truck designed by Francisco Podadera, the Pegaso Solo 500, had been exhibited at the Barcelona Motor Show in 1989.

Most of the Pegaso ranges disappeared from the market shortly after the take-over by Iveco. On July 12, 1994, the very last Pegaso Troner left the production line of the factory at Barajas (Madrid); the last Pegaso engine was made in 1995; but Iveco continued to sell Pegaso-badged military trucks for a couple of years longer.

List of Products

Civilian applications

Pegaso Z-102

Pegaso Z-207

Pegaso Z-403

Pegaso Troner

;Military applications

Pegaso BMR

Pegaso VEC

References

Notes

Bibliography

External links

Links related with Pegaso cars and trucks. (Most of them in Spanish). Also pictures.

Pegaso Monotral 6030-N coach

Spanish gallery of Pegaso trucks and trucking forum

Pegaso Solo 500 (in French)

Category:Motor vehicle manufacturers of Spain Category:Defunct motor vehicle manufacturers of Spain Category:Iveco Category:Truck manufacturers Category:Defunct truck manufacturers Category:Bus manufacturers Category:Sports car manufacturers Category:Trolleybus manufacturers Category:Companies based in Catalonia Category:Defunct companies of Spain

ca:Pegaso de:Pegaso es:Pegaso (automóviles) fr:ENASA nl:Pegaso (automerk) ja:ペガソ no:Pegaso pl:Pegaso ro:Pegaso sv:Pegaso zh:毕加索公司