ANTHEM IN TUNE
When a brand with such an iconic identity as Mack comes up with a hood design as brazenly, even fearlessly distinctive as Anthem, it’s as certain as a dog licking its chops – or any other part of its anatomy for that matter – that opinions will vary wildly, from politely positive to downright demeaning. Like it or loathe it, Anthem is far more than just a radical new hood and, critically, vastly more than just a replacement for the superseded Granite model.
It is, in fact, a vital and certainly overdue platform for a Mack resurgence centred on the ability to provide a stand-up cab; not just for Anthem but also its more established Trident and Super-Liner siblings. And make no mistake, Mack needed a stand-up cab to put it in the ballpark where its conventional competitors have long had an edge.
Anthem is, however, also a vital conduit for a Mack future that is likely to have little in common with its past pedigree other than the classic dog on the snout. Controlling Anthem’s core functions, for instance, is significantly enhanced electrical architecture known within the kennel club as the ‘Tier II bridge’.
It is, in effect, an electrical system adapted from Volvo Group’s network to ‘bridge’ the technological gap between Mack and its cab-over kin, thus providing Anthem and its siblings – except for the Cummins-powered Metro-Liner – with the advanced operational and efficiency functions already existing in Volvo models. Like, functions designed to utilise crawler gears
