Volvo has brought out the Iron Knight and recently has smashed the a speed record with it, a tradition it has kept alive with progressively more powerful and lighter (ie faster) purpose-built speedy trucks.
You won’t think of the Swedish automaker to associate with speed, much less when it comes to their Volvo Trucks division. But they have previously built two record-breakers - the Wild Viking which had 1,193kW (1,600hp), followed by the 1,566kW (2,100hp) hybrid Mean Green.
Back in June, Volvo had conducted the attempt at an airfield in Sweden where the truck broke two records - topping the fastest recorded time for a standing start as well as clocking in a 21.29 seconds to cover 1,000m. This was observed and verified by the FIA.
Olof Johansson from Volvo Trucks, said: "Specialists from several different Volvo Trucks departments worked closely together to develop a truck with unsurpassed performance. Apart from Volvo Trucks' powertrain, which is the heart and soul of The Iron Knight, we've hand-built the truck from the ground up. The fact that we succeeded in securing not just one record but two is absolutely amazing."
The Iron Knight eschews the electric advantage, though, with Volvo opting for pure internal combustion aided by an insane amount of turbocharging to churn out 1,790kW (2,400hp) and an incredible 6,000Nm of torque from its mid-mounted 13-litre quad-turbo engine.
Being still a truck, its light weight of 4.5-tonnes is only impressive when compared to other trucks but still very heavy relative to any other tyred vehicle. Luckily, with all that power, the Iron Knight has a power-to-weight ratio of 0.37kW/kg.
Volvo is actually using the record run to showcase their I-Shift dual clutch transmission, which in the Iron Knight was one of the few components that had not undergone any modification, and is currently found in their series-built FH line of trucks.
"This shows that our I-Shift Dual Clutch transmission has enormous potential and that it does not let you down under extreme conditions is something that we're really proud of," says Claes Nilsson, President and CEO of Volvo Trucks.
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