MAN's new 680hp V8 TGX..Biglorryblog finally gets down to work!

After a short jog on the motorway we then start climbing into some hills so we can get a real feel of the V8's power... only I get the vague feeling the AS-Tronic box isn't quite on song as when I want to shift up manually into top it doesn't want to give me a gear and on one occasion it instead shifts down... most peculiar. Anyway up the twisting, turning road we go and clearly MAN has chosen this route so we can experience the V8's power... but not too enthusiastically! And on a couple of the hairpins I'm having to slow down quite a bit before speeding up again. And here's where the V8 is a real monster - i.e. its mid-range acceleration. If I thought it took off like a scalded cat from rest that's nothing compared to putting your right foot down at 40km/h and watching the speedo start winding up. And that's with 40 tonnes going uphill. The only thing like it that I've experienced is Volvo's FH16.660.

And talk about quiet... the only noise you hear from the V8 when it's on full chat is the turbo whine. It's not like the 13-litre D26 six-pot in the TGX which has a really distinctive deep grumble. By now we're back on the motorway and as much as I'd really like to give the V8 its head...I can't. Why? because even on three-lane stretches of the autobahn there are invariably HGV overtaking bans on the uphill sections of the motorway. Whose bright idea was that? So here I am, with the world's most powerful series production truck, trying to get a real feel for its power, going as fast as the slowest truck up hill. Oh to be in Belgium on the climb out of Spa on the old Trans-Euro-test route. Or the M6 running up Shap...

Then the AS-Tronic starts to play up again... most unusual, as the only other time I had a problem with the ZF auto was in a 540 Iveco Stralis halfway up Castleside Hill on the A68 when it decided it didn't want to give me ANY gear....(oh yes, I forgot to say, Castleside Hill is a 1:7...)

The good news is (or at least as far as I'm concerned) is the fact that I've got the Executive Board member for Engineering and Purchasing at the MAN Nutzfahrzeuge Group sitting across from me...so if anyone knows how to fix it he does. And so it proves to be as he promptly suggests we pull into the next layby, turn off the engine, start it up again and let the box 'recycle' itself. And naturally it does the trick which is probably why Dr. Karl-Viktor Schaller, is the Executive Board member for Engineering and Purchasing at the MAN Nutzfahrzeuge Group... and I'm not.

We finally get back to the holding point (after I'm told that it might be a good idea to slow down as we're doing 80km/h approaching a 50km/h zone!) and I'm left to reflect on the V8. And you know what I think? I think that for all its fabulous acceleration, astonishing performance, low noise and enough grunt to pull down a medium-sized building I'd be just as happy with a 480hp TGX for 44-tonne work. But hey, what the hell do I know?

Meanwhile, don't let my comments on the V8 put you off the TGX, the Germans have done a great job on revising the cab, especially inside and this is where I think they're come up with the real goods - better driver comfort and especially storage. And this shot shows off the centre sliding drawers which I rather like.

So for me, the moral of story is that it's all very well having a stump-pulling big banger under the hood, and yes they are great fun to drive, but ultimately what floats BLB's canoe is a comfortable, well-thought-out cab that can take all your kit. And in this department MAN is definitely getting there. And nothing will persuade me otherwise...until, of course, my next drive in a TGX V8.