Having done this story writing gig for a couple of years now, I have racked up more than a few interesting yarns, and over my years I have chased down stories for a multitude of reasons. Great people, interesting vocations, even just right time, right place.
Occasionally I get very superficial and chase down a story purely based on looks. I know the old adage ‘looks aren’t everything’ and, as a man unencumbered by the standards of beauty, I am a huge advocate of that saying, most of the time.
Today though, I am throwing it all out the window because I have gone all the way to Belgium to grab a story, based solely on looks. Yes, it sounds superficial, because it is. Well, at least it started out purely superficial. I saw the stunning Holridge Scanias, the colour scheme, the detailed artwork, the custom straps! They just looked one out of 10 and I knew I needed to photograph them. It was a huge bonus that the owner of these trucks, Nick Wright, also turned out to be an awesome, generous guy who’s love of trucks matched my own and who’s passion for the Scania V8s and old school T-cab Scanias rivalled that of the hard-core Superliner and SAR fans here in Australia.
Thankfully Nick was more than happy to fill me in on his transport pedigree and shoot his immaculate trucks. Seeing as this is a UK based story, in this write-up I am going to try and adhere to the correct colloquial dialect. Forget the term ‘truck’ – for this story we’ll be going all ‘pommy’ and using the term lorry. However you refer to it, the Holridge Scanias are stunning looking trucks and well worth a European journey.
First things first, I’ll ease up on the dramatic licence a little. I didn’t go all the way to Belgium purely for these trucks. I did happen to time my European holiday with a time when Nick Wright would be in the country with a couple of his stunning fleet. It just sounds cooler if I proclaim I travelled nearly 30 hours just for a story. The origins of this story go back to 2023 when I first met T-cab enthusiast Nick Wright.
I was indulging in my maiden journey to the incredible TruckStar festival. Surrounded by a couple of thousand outstanding lorries, it was Nick’s S660 Scania that first drew me in. Nick was at Truckstar debuting his beautifully restored T-cab Scania and was flat out networking with the thousands of fans that were snapping pictures and firing questions at him. The crowds around the T-cab meant that I was bucking the trend and getting all smitten with his cabover while Nick was fawning over the truck he had spent seven years rebuilding and a lifetime yearning for.
Although our adoration was focused on different vehicles, our dual appreciation for the big Swedish icons was very much aligned. During a little break in Nick’s fandom, I managed to grab his attention and find enough time to introduce myself and get to meet the man that would become a very good friend. I expressed my appreciation for his stunning looking lorries and we agreed that the next time I was over his way we would sit down and he could tell me all about his T-cab obsession, his love of all things Scania and how it feels driving a right hand drive lorry in a left hand drive world.
Roll on 2024 and I was heading back to Europe for another truck show. I reached out to Nick and we agreed to catch up. On a dreary overcast day, I found my way out to the tile factory in Belgium that is a second home to the Holridge trucks and caught up with the little Englishman with a big appetite for Scania and a massive love of lorries.
“I’ve been a lorry driver since before I was old enough to drive them,” Nick says with a laugh.
“You had to be 21 to get your class one back then and I started working for a guy when I was 20.”
That eagerness stems from a childhood growing up around trucks and spending as much time as possible around them. Nick recalls a lot of his teenage years were spent in the passenger seat of one of his mother’s mate’s lorries.
“I remember going with mum’s mate Bill – he was a bit rough around the edges but had a heart of gold,” he says.
“He had an old school DAF, an old 3300 and some old 2028 Mercs, but Nick’s favourite one he drove was a flat roof F12. The lorry was a mess – I used to polish the dash. Back then, in the late ‘80s, it was a lot of running on red diesel, a bit of a bent kind of thing, if you know what I mean.
“Bill would work round the clock and I loved it, I’d have to keep asking him at night if he’s ok as he was starting to drift off. I never needed any money, Bill would give me food and cigarettes, all sorts.”
Now I understand I probably shouldn’t be quoting the supply of cigarettes to minors in my story, however it is England, and it really paints a picture of the era that Nick grew up in. It’s also worth noting the relationship with Bill that started Nick’s love of lorries would see Nick attend three of Bill’s weddings, one as the best man and the third marriage being to Nick’s mum.
From those early days, Nick developed the work ethic that in 2011 would see him and his wife Louise finally get the opportunity to start their own company.
“Louise and I started the company in 2011. It was an ambition I’d wanted to do all my life and, at 37, we decided to give it a go,” he says.
“I sold my house and bought a 480, straight six-cylinder Scania. It had the old paper Tacko and I worked that around the clock. I knew I couldn’t afford to fail so I just worked.”
MORE OWNERDRIVER TRENDING STORIES:
- Morgans keeps it in the family with new K220
- Floods cause Bruce Highway closures
- SRV Road Freight acquires food and beverage carrier
- December TOTM: AKV Haulage’s tribute truck
- Works to repair busy Western Highway for grain trucks
Those teenage experiences paid dividends as Nick got his company established and, after about 18 months, found his workload expanding with a need for a second truck in the Holridge fleet. This time it was to be a 105 DAF.
“I really wanted a V8 Scania right from the start but I just couldn’t afford one. I knew I had to work a bit more before I could afford one of them,” he says.
That Scania V8 dream would eventually come true. With Nick’s work ethos ensuring that he was never short of a load, it meant that it only took a couple of years before his goal was achieved.
“A guy from our local Scania dealer rang me up and said he had a lorry that was right up my ally,” he says.
“He knew I wanted a V8. It was from a one-owner operator for a lot of years and the guy had just passed away. It was a 164, 16-litre 480. I paid 14 grand for it and ran that truck for eight years; it was the hardest working lorry I’ve had, and I sold it for 24 grand a couple of years ago.”
That first injection of V8 power only drove Nick onwards, leading to several more V8s until he ended up with the S660 he has now. It’s my personal favourite, as you can see by the number of photos I took of it. He also has a stunning R730 and an old school R620, still working hard throughout England.
The majority of Nick’s work revolves around the cartage of tiles. I caught up with Nick over in Belgium where he often picks up the tiles to distribute around the UK. It is a complicated but efficient system Nick has set up. He leaves from his home in Lincoln and takes a load of tiles south to deliver before going further south to Folkstone where he drives his lorry onto the train. Yes, that’s right, he drives the lorry and trailer onto a train that shoots 24 miles underneath the English Channel and pops out in France. From there, it’s a bit over an hour to Belgium where he loads Belgium-made English roof tiles. If you look at the big picture, he travels over three countries in a little under three hours.
Back to the tile tale. While Nick is making his way over to load the tiles, he will also have a couple of his other trailers crossing the North Sea via ferry and getting dumped at a port only an hour away from the tile factory in Belgium. This means Nick can drop his loaded trailer, pick up the empties and head back and get up to six trailers loaded and returned to England over the course of a couple of days. While he is loading and returning trailers via the ferry, his local trucks are busy delivering the loads that Nick has already sent back.
It is a pretty smooth operation and one that has allowed Nick to keep food on the table and follow his passion for Scania trucks. This leads us to the other stunning Scania featured in the photos in the T-cab Scania.
“I have always loved T-cabs – something about the 16-litre 4 Series T-cabs I just loved. I’d never drove one but always loved them,” he says.
“They’re probably second nature to you guys in Australia, having the nose, but I’d always loved them, even just the look of them. Some people love the 143s, I just always wanted a T164.”
In 2016, with the Holridge company’s reputation ensuring his trucks were being kept busy and with the blessing and support of his amazing wife Louise, Nick finally indulged his final Scania fantasy by getting his own T-cab.
“Of course, I wanted a V8 but couldn’t find one, but I eventually found a six cylinder one,” he says.
“It was a 2003, six-cylinder 470 T-cab. The six cylinder wasn’t bad, but it was nowhere near good, so I bought an Irish motor and a four-series V8 and we got the entire engine as well as the wiring looms.
“We just completely replaced the old 6 cylinder 470.”
As we start to unravel the extent and effort put into this stunning T-cab, there are two things to keep in mind. Nick will attest to the fact that nearly 80 per cent of the original lorry ended up in the bin and that if the work wasn’t done by Nick himself, then you can bet anything that his head was on the left shoulder of whoever was undertaking the job.
The whole engine got rebuilt – pistons, liners, oil and water pumps. All main and bottom end bearings, you name it, it got replaced or refurbed, even down to the window wiper motor. A whole new bonnet was sourced, all the airlines, hoses and wiring were replaced. It became a whole new truck.
Inside got exactly the same treatment, with new Scania dash and panels while the floor walls and seats were all reupholstered. It was starting to sound like the 20 per cent he held onto was merely the chassis rails. The end result was a transformation from a tired old T124 Euro 3 470 into a state-of-the-art T164 580 6X2 twin wheel tag bull nose.
With the interior revamped, the powerline souped up and the truck as good as new, the only thing left was the aesthetic dilemma. Thankfully, Nick opted to paint the truck in the company colour that work exquisitely on his S660 and R730, deviating only with the addition of some personal artwork.
“I grew up with my grandma and grandpa. I spent a lot of time with them and wanted to honour them on this truck,” he says.
“I’ve called it Lady Annie as that was my grandma and the photos on the side are of my grandpa.”
I should add that the Holridge name is actually an amalgamation of his grandparent’s names, Annie Holgate and Ernest Ridgill. The more I learnt about Nick during our catch-up, it was obvious that this seven-year project was a complete labour of love for a man that has an immense passion for his trucks and his family.
Nick is also happy to admit that, as well as him having the drive for such a project, he wouldn’t have achieved it without his lovely wife Louise, who has also spent more than any wife’s allotted time behind the tools and polishing clothes. As well as his son Thomas, who has become quite the YouTube star with his T-cab Thomas channel called Holridge_Tom, his support features a lot of the progress story behind this truck.
Although this was meant to be a short feature, it is hard to cull back a story when you sit down with someone with as much passion as Nick. It is also heartwarming to realise that trucking passion is a universal affliction, whether it’s Kenworths or Scanias, bonnets or cabovers. We all suffer the same, normally with a loaded garage, an empty wallet and a stack of photos.
Subscribe to the weekly Owner//Driver newsletter here.