By CASEY NEILL
IVECO invited V8 racing royalty to celebrate its 40th birthday.
Red Bull Racing Australia drivers Jamie Whincup and Craig Lowndes toured the truck manufacturer’s Dandenong South facility on Wednesday 9 September.
They also inspected the Red Bull Racing Iveco Stralis AS-L race car transporter.
Iveco Trucks Australia has been in Dandenong since 1952 when International Harvester, as it was then known, developed a truck manufacturing facility.
“I hope the facility will remain in Dandenong another 60 years at least,” spokesman Ron Grasso said earlier this year when the company was a finalist for the Victorian Manufacturing Hall of Fame Large Manufacturer of the Year award.
Mr Grasso said Iveco was a high value-add, agile truck manufacturer.
IVECO became part of the Fiat group in 1992 and is now the commercial and specialty vehicle brand of multi-national CNH Industrial following a Fiat-Case New Holland merger.
Mr Grasso said the deal created new opportunities for the group in Australia, particularly in research and development.
The business expects to grow in the coming years through bus and coach manufacturing – it manufactures bus chassis at the Dandenong facility – and its capabilities in defence force products and emergency services vehicles.
Iveco Trucks Australia has about 600 employees Australia-wide and the Dandenong headquarters houses about 150 within the manufacturing facility with about double that number in manufacturing support roles.
