VOA常速英语:Volvo Breaks Its Record for Fastest Truck on Earth(翻译)

Reaching the top speed of 276 kilometers per hour, Volvo’s Iron Knight set the new unofficial world record for trucks,covering the distance of 1 kilometer in 21.290 seconds.

The international motor sport association FIA is expected to make it official.

The previous record of 21.596 seconds was set in 2012 by Volvo’s Mean Green truck.

Similar to production-based automobiles used in stock car races,the super-truck’s powertrain and transmission are based on the standard engine,gearbox and clutch used in Volvo’s FH line of long-haul trailer trucks.

They just had to be modified to handle the enormous forces.

"The Iron Knight is basically a truck where we said to our designers, think out of the box.’ And that’s exactly what they did."

Iron Knight’s chassis is handmade,but its 13-liter 2400-horsepower diesel engine and the new I-Shift Dual Clutch transmission develop 6,000 Newton-meters of torque,about 17 times more than the 350-horsepower Ford Focus engine.The clutch plates had to be made of special material.

Volvo says the main purpose of this exercise in truck building technology was to show that its new dual clutch transmission greatly reduces the wear of both clutch in gearbox,enabling smooth gear shifting under the most extreme conditions such as when hauling great loads up the steep hill.