A couple of Macks can now be removed from Matt’s test drive bucket list, leading to pangs of guilt about his job…
Sometimes I feel a little guilty about my job. The boss hasn’t clued on to the fact that I’m really using work as an excuse to track down some classic heavy metal to tick off the test drive bucket list.
I’ve climbed behind the wheel of some legendary trucks; W900 Kenworths, GM-powered Whites, B-model Macks, Peterbilts and even a GM-equipped KM Bedford. But there was one truck that I’d been busting to drive for a long time – a Series 1 Mack Superliner.
A mad-house at night
Back in the halcyon days of Aussie road transport in the 1980s, these things were legendary. Speed limiting for trucks didn’t come into force here until the early 1990s, after a couple of horrific crashes between coaches and trucks. Even then the 100km/h speed limit was only loosely enforced. Australia’s main freight routes were a mad-house after dark.
There were a couple of legendary trucks from this period. The W900 Kenworth would be one, along with the aerosleek Kenworth T600 that arrived in the latter half of the decade. But the Mack Superliner was also up there; a big, lazy, low-revving V8 that sounded fantastic in full flight.
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