EVOLUTION OF AN ICON
Kenworth events are a big deal. Always have been, and given the aspirational notoriety of the brand, probably always will be. Historically, they don’t happen very often but over the past four or five years there has been a veritable glut of ‘big deals’ from Kenworth and Paccar Australia. All with good reason, of course, and all producing remarkable results as well as an occasional, intriguing insight into bold new developments quietly taking shape behind closed doors.
Obviously enough, the latest blockbuster was the recent and typically upmarket release of the K220 cab-over to around 500 customers, dealers, special guests and media in a purposefully prepared hangar at Brisbane’s Archerfield airbase. With air-race ace Matt Hall performing jaw-dropping aerial stunts, it was, by any measure, a slap-up, full throttle shindig to not only launch a new version of an old warhorse but also, as one high-ranking Paccar Australia executive poignantly remarked, an ideal opportunity to celebrate normality after two years of COVID-induced mayhem and misery.
Anyway, while we’ll get to the basic details of the truck shortly, suffice to say it would take a fountain of foolishness in a noggin of pure naivety to suggest the K220 will be anything less than a continuation of the incredible acceptance which keeps K-series the dominant model in Paccar Australia’s product portfolio.
Again though, the arrival of the substantially reworked cab-over was simply the latest notch in a swathe of celebrations which largely started
