There are plenty of immaculate show trucks on the rally circuit. You know the sort: polished wheels, spotless paintwork and enough chrome to blind passing aircraft. Doug isn’t one of them.

Doug is a 1989 Scania 93M, originally built to earn a living rather than sit behind a rope at a showground. After decades of hard work hauling goods around Britain, he eventually found his way into preservation. Rather than undergoing a ground-up restoration, Doug has largely been preserved as an honest working lorry. The dents, wear marks and signs of use are all part of his story.

Under the cab sits Scania’s 9-litre engine producing around 280 horsepower. By modern standards that’s fairly modest, especially when compared to today’s 500-horsepower-plus fleet trucks, but it remains more than enough to move the old girl along at a respectable pace. What Doug lacks in outright performance he makes up for in character. Modern lorries are incredibly capable machines, but few generate the same level of conversation when parked at a fuel station.

Like any vehicle approaching forty years of age, Doug has his quirks. The fuel gauge stopped telling the truth many years ago, so fuel levels are measured using a carefully calibrated wooden stick inserted into the tank. Some might view this as a flaw. I prefer to think of it as an analogue fuel management system. The fact that the lorry and its owner both rely heavily on guesswork only adds to the charm.

Over the years Doug has become much more than a vehicle. He has appeared in magazine articles, attended rallies across the country and become a familiar face on the Not The Full Cog YouTube channel. Whether he’s parked in a showground or trundling along a country road, he always seems to attract people who either used to drive one, worked on one or simply remember seeing them when they were common on British roads.

For all his imperfections, Doug perfectly represents what preservation should be about. He’s not pretending to be a museum exhibit. He’s simply an old working lorry that refuses to retire.