The manufacturing behemoth had started to crumble under the weight of punishing warranty claims for the MaxxForce 13 and 15 engines, the payment of non-compliance penalties for making engines that didn’t meet the EPA10 regulations, a shareholder revolt and litigation from competitors. Navistar itself is starting to claw its way back out of the advanced exhaust gas recirculation (AEGR) mire that it had become marooned in. While aerodynamics are becoming a huge part of fuel saving targets in the US, engines, transmissions and final drive ratios are all now under scrutiny as OEMs all clamour to find that competitive edge with fuel savings. As the guys from Navistar like to point out, the International ProStar was the first real cab off the aerodynamic rank way back in 2007. The reality is however, that all American manufacturers now have a slippery-shaped prime mover for the US long-haul market.įrom the Freightliner Cascadia, Kenworth T680, to the Volvo VN and the newly launched Western Star 5700EX, a streamlined bonnet and cab is now the new face of trucking in the US. The aero look of most new American prime movers is at odds with the flat, portrait style radiator grille and vertical snorkels and stacks that we associate with a big American conventional. The enduring image of American trucking is often a Peterbilt 379 or Kenworth conventional with a towering chrome shrouded snout, but emissions targets are now also mandating fuel economy for Class 8 (heavy-duty) vehicles. The circuit has a mix of highway, and off-road circuits, and like most test facilities it has lots of very interesting bits of gear tucked away to be flogged around the track when nobody is looking. From the baby TerraStar 4×4, the WorkStar vocational hauler to the ProStar highway hauler and of course the range topping LoneStar, International’s king of bling.ĭuring the summer months, Eaton’s 600-acre (243-hectare) facility is pretty much booked solid with manufacturer testing schedules, training days, customer drive days and of course the occasional bunch of blow-in media, like us. But that day at the Eaton test facility located in Marshall, Michigan we were introduced to a cross-section of the International range. It’s probably fair to say I’m easily amused. He even takes some pictures for show and tell. A black International LoneStar glittering in all its retro chrome glory and his reaction is only marginally more mature. Only days earlier in the United States, a bigger kid of the adult variety finds himself standing in front of the real thing. The LoneStar tends to have that sort of effect on people. “Wow, I’m taking this to show and tell!” he squeaks as he scurries out of the room. Inside the box is a scale model of an International LoneStar, the hero of the American International heavy-duty range. He looks up at his old man “Can … can I have it?” Wide-eyed, he says “Is it for me?” Recently in a small town in regional New South Wales, a five-year-old boy stood staring in wonder at the contents of the box that his dad had just given him. Matt Wood heads stateside to get his hands on a big shiny International LoneStar and satisfies the super trucker within.
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