After building up anticipation for weeks, Ford Performance has finally revealed its F-150 Lighting SuperTruck designed to take on Pikes Peak later this month. Predictably, it’s outfitted with some wildly aggressive aero elements and other heavy modifications.
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Developed in partnership with STARD, those crazy aero elements have been designed to produce up to 6,000 lbs. of downforce at 150 mph. Considering the air gets much thinner towards the end of the Pikes Peak course, that ridiculous amount becomes necessary.
Now Ford says this SuperTruck used the F-150 Lightning as “inspiration” for its design. As you can clearly tell, it’s a big departure from the production all-electric pickup truck. But we expect some people to try acting like this is a lightly modified version of what they have in their driveway.
Instead, this is a purpose-built vehicle. Pikes Peak provides unique, extreme challenges for vehicles as well as drivers, so to use a “normal” setup and expect peak performance just isn’t realistic.
Romain Dumas, a Frech racecar driver, will pilot the Ford F-150 Lighting SuperTruck for its Pikes Peak main event on June 23. He’s an excellent choice considering the man is the current Pikes Peak International Hill Climb record holder. Ford obviously is trying to stack the deck and come off with an impressive victory.
Keep in mind that for the 2023 Pikes Peak International Hill Climb Ford notched up a big victory when the Electric SuperVan 4.2 set a new record in the Open Class at 8:47.682 ET.
According to Ford, this vehicle that’s part of its EV demonstrator programs will help with tweaking software calibration in future vehicles, as well as battery cell chemistry. In other words, what’s learned from pushing this truck to its limit at Pikes Peak could very well help with creating your future electric car.
Images via Ford
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