Mack Trucks on Sunday, Oct. 23 introduced to its World Sales Conference a new flagship highway tractor called Pinnacle and new models of its Granite and Granite Axle Back construction vehicles.
The truck maker also unveiled the MP7 engine — the first in a new Mack Power family of engines that are based on the same architecture as the one that will be used to meet the 2007 U.S. emissions regulations. Mack said that customers in both highway and vocational applications can expect a significant improvement in fuel economy in the MP7 compared to current engines.
“This is truly the start of a new era for Mack,” said Paul Vikner, Mack president and CEO. “The new products that we’re debuting today directly respond to our customers’ requirements, and represent the combining of our heritage of reliability and durability with the latest in breakthrough technology.”
Available in the initial offerings of both the Pinnacle and the new Granite, the MP7 is an 11-liter engine available in the three Mack engine families — Econodyne, Maxidyne and MaxiCruise — in six horsepower ratings between 325 and 405 hp., with torque ranging from 1260 to 1560 ft.-lb.
The MP7 engine’s design has the key elements to bring it into compliance with the ’07 standards. Key components include:
The second member of the new engine family — the MP8 — will be available in 2007. The MP8 is a 13-liter engine with ratings from 415 to 485 hp matched to torque levels from 1540 to 1700 lb.-ft.
The Pinnacle highway tractor is offered in a 116-inch bumper-to-back-of-cab daycab configuration, as well as 48- and 56-inch flat-top, 60- and 70-inch mid-rise, and 70-inch high-rise sleepers built on Mack’s Advantage highway chassis. The new Granite and Granite Axle Back models feature a 116-BBC dimension and are built on the Mack Cornerstone vocational chassis. Both product lines were build behind the MP engine, the company says.
New cab desings feature:
In addition to bringing the new models and engines to market, Mack plans to continue offering its 2004-certified ASET engines in current Vision highway and Granite vocational models in 2006 as well.
“This approach gives customers interested in experiencing our new engine technology as soon as possible the opportunity to do so, and those who prefer to continue with our current offering for another year a similar opportunity,” said Tom Kelly, Mack’s vice president of marketing. “It also allows us to gradually ramp up our product offering and production capabilities to ensure preparedness for 2007.”
