There are drive events, and there are ‘drive’ events, and Penske’s 2024 gathering at Wacol in Queensland at the end of May was an absolute doozy. Little surprise considering the man whose name fronts the enterprise. Over the next two months, we’ll cover off the happenings, starting with the Lion’s share.

Nothing speaks to an OEM’s confidence in its product more than a yard full of trucks loaded to the gunnels and company representatives asking, “What are you standing there for?”

Penske’s 2024 drive event was exactly what a drive event should be, big trucks and a decent two-and-a-half hour lash behind the wheel of the ‘jiggers’ we’d selected in the weeks prior.

After brief addresses from Hamish Christie-Johnston, managing director for Australia and New Zealand, Craig Lee, executive general manager for on-highway, and head of Western Star Kurt Dein, it was up to the products to do the ‘torquing’. We’ll split the Penske offering into its two constituent marques, focusing on MAN this month and Western Star next.

Big and bold

Without wanting to unstitch myself here, the only vehicles us There are drive events, and there are ‘drive’ events, and Penske’s 2024 gathering at Wacol in Queensland at the end of May was an absolute doozy. Little surprise considering the man whose name fronts the enterprise. Over the next two months, we’ll cover off the happenings, starting with the Lion’s share. Kiwi fellas weren’t able to drive were the two MAN B-double units. They are now considered multi-trailer combinations and as such, the NHVR requires you do hold an MC (multi-trailer combination) licence. Sad as that may be, it was the last truck for me and concluded the event, so a cruisy yarn was fine.

The lack of a drive was no real biggy as the 26.580 TGX tractor unit is a spec well known to us. With a headline GX cab, it was the true line hauler’s home with 2070mm headroom inside, and all the ‘fruit’ both inside and out. Running gear was the 15.2L D38 in Euro-6e trim, a combination we’re familiar with. On this occasion, it was presented in 433kW (580hp) and 2900Nm (2139lb/ft) guise. Just as I did, you might well ask ‘Why not the full monty 640?’ The old chestnut of people thinking they need more than they often do was the response from driver and chaperone Wayne Wallace, head of retail truck sales for Australia. It means keeping some powder in the demo keg to impress should the need for more ‘oomph’ be real. “You can never bring them back down when it comes to power.”

Our route took us 70km due west of Brisbane on the A2 to a rest out past the Gatton trailer hook-up heading toward Toowoomba. It’s a four-lane expressway circa Waikato style, with one hill called the Minden which you’d say is akin to St Stevens for the North Islanders, and northbound into Greta Canyon for the Southerners.

At 64-odd tonne GCM through the lazy rolling country, the 580 D38 appeared to be putting about as much effort into proceedings as the 640 in the Ramsay machine last August did when climbing away from Taupō onto the Rangitaiki at 54 tonne. It’s a gorgeous big thumper filling the cab in that subdued, muffled locomotive groove we’ve commented on before. The MAN TipMatic 12 30 OD AMT transmission (MAN configured ZF TraXon) does a beautiful job of seamlessly swapping cogs, and the eight-bag ECAS suspension was stability personified in an environment that offered it no real test.

As we motored west, Wayne lamented the road surface and all I could think was how happy I’d be if our carriageways of national disgrace came even close to this.

The flagship of the drive day fleet bristled with all the safety and productivity kit you’d expect and only fools and horses would bemoan the added situational comfort tech like adaptive cruise and active braking have brought to high-speed, high-weight haulage.

This motor loves the basement on the tachometer, and the big Lion easily maintained a steady 100km/h (Aussie remember) for 90% of the open road time, yet with eco-roll and the insulated cab environs, often the sensation was of nothing much happening. When a rise did rob it of the top 15 or so ‘clicks’, it was effortlessly regained.

Our unit ran the 3.36:1 final drive, which means by application it can be rated to 120 tonnes – handy if it needs to help in a proper multi-trailer environment. Having rounded up the Minden in ninth at 1050rpm, Wayne was keen to demo MAN’s EVBec auxiliary brake descending the other side. Delivering an impressive 627kW (840hp), it is the most powerful in its class. A quick recap of the system: a flap upstream of the turbo closes and combines with targeted airflow of high-speed gas from the remaining opening, back to the exhaust side of the turbo increasing turbine speed on both sides. This increases back pressure through the entire top end of the engine, resulting in a prodigious braking effect. It will blend with the transmission once the throttle-actuated descending control is activated. The system easily held the show even with gravity pressing hard.

As a place of work, the TG3 cab is as impressive now as it was on first viewing in 2018 in Munich. I’m not sure if it was me, but the Aussie incarnation seamed a little softer than the Ramsay truck – maybe it’s hitting the road deformities that little bit quicker. Driving position, controls and information feedback are state-of-the-art and the SmartSelect wheel as a means to manage swathes of information has lost none of its appeal.

We turned the TGX GX for home and chatted our way back to Wacol, wondering what it would be like to work for a living.

Best things – small packages

My other MAN selection was a humble wee TGS 26.440 D20 Wharf spec. ‘That’s exotic’ you might think with a side-eye glance, but these days are all about market relevance. I ticked the obligatory ‘big banger’ in the 26.580 because they tend to take your temperature if you don’t; who doesn’t want to show off their Ivy League children afterall. However, this lovely wee jobbie sitting in the corner with its plain-curtain semi spoke to me right from the selection list. Yes, it was Euro-5 but, for me, it wasn’t about the engine on this occasion, there were other reasons afoot. First, this genre of TG3 MAN is popping up more and more in regional distribution work at home, and after this experience, it’s not hard to see why. All other reasons aside – and there are many, as you’ll see – this unit in Aussie would set you back a hair over AU$240,000 as it stood with steel wheels.

Second, as I age, I wonder about life after work and would I be happy relieving and ‘playing’ when needed in a more modest carriage of social utility.

My truck host on this jaunt was Sergio Carboni, a wonderful character who fills the regional business manager role for greater Melbourne. Settled in the cab, with those gathered watching us leave, this truck had me gripped from the get go … well, once we found it was in creep mode and switched that off, LOL. (For a moment I wondered how much you’d get through in a day with a top speed of 8km/h.)

True design genius is getting into a totally new truck and feeling like you just put on your favourite pair of shoes. You could position it without thinking; it turned on a dime, zipping around like a kitten chasing a ball of wool.

I know the inner workings of the TG3 cab pretty well and it was all right there at my fingertips – information, switches, the SmartSelect wheel … bliss! By the time we got to the end of the first city block all I wanted was a podcast to listen to.

“They’re pretty neat aren’t they,” said a beaming ‘Serge’.

“Mate, I’m smitten. If this was to be my podcast and Luke Combs’ mancave as a retirement hobby … I’m there!” All that said, what really impressed me was yet to come.

Under the cab was the 10.5L D2066 LF57 Euro-5 burner at 324kW (440hp) and 2100Nm (1549lb/ft). Power peaks at 1900rpm, and torque occupies the 1000 to 1400rpm space. Backing that up is the MAN TipMatic 12 28 OD AMT, and MAN Hypoid diffs at 4.11:1 and four-bag ECAS suspension. It’s an incredibly smooth package and good for a stonking 68-tonne GCM.

Thankfully, we were sitting at around 35-tonne GCM as we headed out on our two-hour urban circuit up the A7 toward the city before veering right to the coast, out around the Mt Cotton area to the southeast and back to Penske’s Wacol HQ in Brisbane’s southwest.

It was exactly the ticket for this machine at this weight. It was smartly away from the lights, the TipMatic so adept at giving you the sprocket it knew you wanted. The truck’s manoeuvrability is also key to tying the package together and its 16.2m kerb-to-kerb lock means you can probably poke a big semi in places you thought impossible.

For me, though, the real eyebrow-raiser making this little toiler so likeable was the ride and complete absence of bullying from the semi. In and around the city fringes – the ups and downs, the corners and gullies – not once did I feel even a gentle nudge, and although that is testament to good load placement as much as anything, the generous GCM means this thing is nuggety in the undercarriage and won’t be pushed around easily.

Again, the accoutrements of modern safety afford another layer of surveillance, almost essential as the cityscapes of both Antipodean nations increase in headcount yet reduce in personal accountability.

Our cab was the TM, narrow, long and normal height, meaning a 2.240m external width that gives the truck more ‘prominent hips’ – guards and bumpers – and a more stocky overall look than the fuller figure accommodation. ‘Long’ means it has a bunk, which is always nice for your stuff, not that there’s any shortage of space because ‘long’ also means under-bunk lockers – winner winner chicken dinner! The ride was the equal of its much bigger brother. In fact, I’d probably have chosen the TGS as the winner there. Handling and behaviour in the urban confines and fringe motorways was impeccable, and in respect to the latter, it had no trouble hanging on to the crowd. Of course, north of, say, 50 tonne, that might change considerably.

A retirement sweet spot, or your first brave leap into a new truck on a regional task … you’d be hard-pressed to walk away.