The Mack Titan changes up through the gears. We’re on the road and it’s the first taste of the 685hp MP10 engine. I have just driven the big truck out of the hook-up yard on the western side of Port Augusta. Three trailers with a gross weight of 110 tonnes snake in the rear vision mirrors as I steer the outfit through tight corners and out onto the road north. It doesn’t bellow when I give it full boot, but pulls away calmly, strongly, without complaint.

While a newbie to automated transmissions - my only experience thus far with the Scania Opti-Cruise in a Scania 730 - the mDrive on the Mack has a very different feel that is a little disconcerting at first, as the transmission flips back to 1100 revs on an upward change. These are low revs for a triple and the engine is amazingly quiet. It seems too low and too quiet for 110 tonnes. Then I look at the tacho and it is creeping up, the truck pulls smoothly and quickly up from 1100 rpm.

The torque peak plateau runs from 1100 to 1400 rpm and what at first feels a little clunky, soon reveals itself as a very fuel-aware specification loaded into the basic automated mDrive program.

The MP10 has power. A glance at the speedo shows how quickly we are accelerating through the landscape: 60, 70, 90km/h and up. The 685 horses pull quietly and firmly. The Meritor 4.30 drive axles on Neway suspension, pushing out through Mack multi-leaf steer cuts the road as clean as a butcher’s knife, the three trailers sweetly snug the fog line.

Read Bruce's full experience in the March issue of Truckin' Life Magazine.