Roman (vehicle manufacturer)

ROMAN S.A.

Type	Private
Industry	Automotive
Headquarters	Brașov, Romania
Key people	Ioan Neculaie
Products	Trucks, Buses, Diesel engines
Revenue	US$ 210 million (2007)
Number of employees	300
Website	www.roman.ro

ROMAN (with the DAC division) is a truck and bus manufacturer from Brașov, Romania. The company was established after World War II on the foundation of the old ROMLOC automotive factory built in 1921. In the spirit of the communist days, the industrial plant was named Steagul Roşu (Red Flag). As of 2000 almost 750,000 trucks had been produced.

In 1954, the first batch of SR-101 trucks came out of the factory. The SR-101 was in fact a clone of the ZIS-150 Soviet truck and it came with the same specifications.

In 1958, the company decided to produce a new type, as the SR-101 no longer complied with international vehicle standards. The new design used a Ford Y-block pattern V8 gasoline engine of 140 HP, and its cab has been designed at the Chausson Plant in France. The first V8 SR-131 truck of 3-ton load named Carpati was produced in the summer of 1960, and from 1962 the SR-132 model of 2.5 tons load and 4x4 transmission. In 1964 it started the production of the series named Bucegi, SR-113 a truck of 5-ton load and SR-114 of 4-ton load and 4×4 transmission. Generally, these trucks included all the western technology elements of the time. The range had been completed in five years by the following versions: military vehicle, long vehicle, tip-lorry, crane, forward cab. Torpedo, Perkins, Saviem and Mercedes diesel engines were used for export products.

In 1967, as Carpati and Bucegi types became old fashioned, a tender was launched for a new type featuring the following specifications: load capacity of 12-18 tons, diesel engine, a forward cab, observance of CEE-ONU standards.

Büssing, Mercedes-Benz, MAN-Saviem and Unic came to make offers, and the decision was to sign a contract with the West-German MAN AG company. This contract led to the construction, under licence, of two types of badge engineered ROMAN: medium 135 hp (101 kW) and heavy 215 hp (160 kW), with a load capacity of up to 36 tons. It also led to the production of 8 types of buses: the town, suburban, intercity and tourism versions.