2020 Freightliner vs 3500 GMC Dually at the Ike

4x4ord wrote:
The GM was not putting out anywhere near its advertised HP. A truck equipped with an engine making 445 hp / 910 lb ft would have been able to make that run in very close to 7 minutes 20 seconds. I think the high altitude must drastically affect the power these engines are able to make. If the Cummins was producing the power it is advertised to make it should have made the run in just over 9 minutes.

That's the thing I like about the Ike Gauntlet tests. The tests show time after time that the manufacturers rating numbers are just one factor that determines how fast a truck goes up the hill. If the question had been asked "which truck gets up the hill faster", the 350 hp Freightliner or the 445 hp GM towing the same weight, the overwhelming response from the "numbers" guys would have been the GM would have smoked the Freightliner, which it did not. The Ike test proves that sometimes those numbers are just numbers.