Chapter 212: The Steyr modified by Ha Gong Da is incredibly defiant!

In later times, electric cars have no concept of gears; you just press the accelerator. For gasoline cars, most are also automatic transmissions, so the driver only needs to press the throttle, and the computer handles shifting as needed.

However, when learning to drive, unless you go straight for a C2 license, you should experience the pain of shifting gears; that gear lever in your right hand is far more complicated than anything between your legs!

However, a car's manual transmission usually has five forward gears, or six; early models had three or four, and shifting isn't that complicated.

The Fuller transmission matched with the Steyr has a full nine gears!

The lowest gear is C gear, also called the climbing gear, designed specifically for steep slopes; the remaining eight gears, if laid out horizontally, would make even veteran drivers likely to shift incorrectly, so the transmission has a high-low gear structure.

Besides the climbing and reverse gears on the shift lever, the remaining eight gears have only four shift positions; in the low-speed range they are 1–4, and after switching high-low speed to the high-speed range they become 5–8; the high-low shift is pneumatic.

So, hearing that sound means the transmission has reached the high-speed range!

Because there are so many gears, when driving empty, no veteran driver shifts up one by one; they almost always go 1, 3, 5, then once in the high-speed 5th gear they shift up one gear at a time—this is also why you don't want to race a dump truck, because once it speeds up it's reluctant to slow down.

But now we're heavily loaded, and you're treating it as if it were empty!

Everyone was stunned.

Black smoke billowed, and the speed surged.

Thirty, forty, fifty…

Later-model high-performance compact cars, especially electric ones, have explosive 0–100 km/h acceleration, often under five seconds; assuming uniform acceleration, in less than a hundred meters the speed can reach 100 km/h.

But heavy trucks can't do that!

Top-tier heavy trucks these days need tens of seconds to reach 100 km/h, requiring over five hundred meters; nowadays it's often over a hundred seconds, maybe even a kilometer to accelerate—assuming the truck can even go that fast, the old Liberation and old Dongfeng top out at just sixty to seventy km/h.

Now, a Steyr heavy truck somehow accelerates to fifty km/h over just two hundred meters!

Put that in a car and it might just be a matter of flooring the accelerator, but now… this is absolutely an impossible miracle!

This engine's power… is unbelievable!

Just as everyone was marveling, the vehicle charged up the slope.

The engine was still roaring, but the black smoke grew thicker—this was the engine straining—so the air valve sounded again, and the transmission shifted into the low range, fourth gear.

Just now, the other test trucks never even entered high gear; as they climbed, they kept dropping gears until even the lowest couldn't keep them moving, and the distance they finally stopped at represented their performance.

But now everyone is staring at the Steyr; after shifting into fourth gear, no more shifting sounds were heard, and on a slope of several degrees the engine had plenty of power, roaring forward without even a puff of black smoke from the exhaust!

When emissions entered the National III era, engines generally used electronic control; the accelerator pedal underfoot is actually a sensor that only signals the driver's wish for more fuel, but the actual amount is determined by the computer according to need, so excessive fuel injection causing black smoke disappeared completely in the National III era.

As emissions standards grew stricter later on, engine exhaust became ever cleaner; as for the nitpicking zero‑emission claim, touting electric cars just means turning a blind eye to the pollution from power generation and batteries.

The Steyr kept going, and the slope began to steepen.

Clatter, bang!

The sound of shifting gears finally rang out.

Fourth gear shifted down to third, continuing the climb; on a slope of about twenty degrees it handled it easily, then going further up it shifted from third to second.

Kurt and Horst widened their eyes.

The slope had already reached thirty degrees, this vehicle…

It didn't shift again, just kept going in second gear, and the engine emitted no black smoke, showing it still had reserve power!

Seven hundred meters, eight hundred meters…

It had already passed where the Deutz military truck finally stopped, and continued on; the slope had now reached thirty‑five degrees!

The shifting sound rang out, second gear shifted down to first, the vehicle kept moving forward, and Kurt and Horst's faces completely changed.

Just how strong is this power?

In first gear it had already surged past a thousand meters, on a slope of about forty degrees!

A normal civilian truck only needs to handle a fifteen‑degree slope, a military truck is required to manage over twenty degrees, and being able to climb thirty degrees is already unbelievable; now this Steyr is actually charging up a forty‑degree slope!

Clatter, bang!

Finally, it was time for the lowest climbing gear; at this point the Steyr heavy truck moved as slowly as a snail, yet it steadily clonked onward, still crawling upward.

Forty‑one degrees, forty‑two degrees…

Even the traces left by tank tracks had vanished, and after the Steyr's difficult roar, it finally stalled out.

"Steyr's result: 1,138 meters, final slope forty‑five degrees!"

"Good, good, not bad!" Old Yuan nodded satisfactorily: "In the early tests we still thought the Steyr lacked power, never expecting…"

"Never expected that the Steyr modified by Ha Gong Da would be so unbelievable!"

He hadn't finished his remark when someone jumped out.

"Impossible, impossible, Old Yuan, there must be something wrong here—I suspect they're cheating!"

Hearing that sharp voice, Old Yuan's expression turned grave as he looked at the speaker.

"Engineer Zheng, tell me, how did they cheat?"

This is obvious—if you can't produce evidence, you're just slandering! People like you don't deserve to have a say in the system!

"Old Yuan, I suspect they changed the rear‑axle ratio!" Old Zheng, glared at by Old Yuan, felt a bit uneasy, but still held to his judgment.

The Steyr's power couldn't possibly be this strong; it must be cheating!

The simplest method is to change the rear‑axle ratio!

A vehicle's top speed is determined by its engine and drivetrain; for example, if the engine turns at 2,000 rpm and the transmission is in direct drive, the output shaft still turns at 2,000 rpm. With a rear‑axle ratio of 5.73, the wheel speed drops to 349 rpm. If the truck tire circumference is 3.5 meters, that yields 1.2 km per minute, or 72 km/h.

The larger the rear‑axle ratio, the lower the top speed, but at the same time the speed reduction increases torque, so the vehicle's hauling capacity also becomes greater.

It's like a single‑cylinder diesel engine that gets stronger under load—able to pull any number of tons—because the drivetrain ratio is large; it can climb hills but won't go fast.

The Steyr before us surely had its rear‑axle ring gear altered to boost climbing ability!

Rubel's expression shifted, he wanted to say something, but Qin Miao pulled him aside and then stepped forward.

Hey Engineer Zheng, is it because of some special reason that you've been putting down the Steyr all along?