Usually the trend is buses with Voith accelerate slower than ZF
equipped ones. But the Voiths have less gear changes so costs are
lower. To differentiate between a Voith and a ZF, the most obvious
is that Voiths have a whistling sound when braking and older models
(especially Tridents, sb220s, o405gs, and b10tls) have a high
pitched whining like sound everywhere. Another way is Voiths shift
less and the engine revs up slower. This can be helpful for Wright
and Gemliang b9tls as the voith whistle is less obvious. The third
way is to READ UP ON THE PARTICULAR BUS AND CHECK WHICH ONES ARE ZF
AND WHICH ONES ARE VOITH! ! !
One thing a lot of people get mistaken is when it's a Voith, the
bus is slow. It's true that voith equipped buses accelerate slower
because of less gears. But actually it all matters to the engine
output and Bus weight. Example - I was in a K UB and a NL323F Voith
just overtook the K UB although it was at 1900rpm. The K UB is
obviously ZF as SBS ordered all of them with ZFs and the NL323F was
SG plated so it was a Voith for sure. The K UB only has 230 bhp and
1050Nm whereas the NL323F has 320bhp and 1600Nm. Obviously it will
smoke the K UB
OC with 299 hp can accelerate faster than voith MAN on flat
road..