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King of the Mountain: Ford Lightning SuperTruck lights up Pikes Pike Hill Climb
Posted by Talbot Payne on June 28, 2024
It’s a bird, it’s a plane, it’s . . . Supertruck.
Colorado’s famed Pikes Peak International Hill Climb has a new King of the Mountain: the bonkers, slammed, winged, 1,600-horsepower Ford F-150 Lightning SuperTruck with more aerodynamic downforce than an IndyCar. So modified is the ferocious pickup to achieve its mission of conquering the Colorado hill’s 12.4-mile, 156-turn course that it looks more like something out of the latest Mad Max movie, “Furiosa,” than its production parent.
Driven by French race driver Romain Dumas, the Ford-badged beast made the fastest pass of the 61-car field at Pikes Peak’s 102nd running in a time of 8:53.6 minutes on Sunday.
The wicked-looking Ford’s feat was the latest performance mark set by the Blue Oval’s lineup of so-called EV Demonstrators developed by its Ford Performance division. EVs are especially well-suited to high-altitude hill-climb events like the 14,115-foot Pike’s Peak. Where internal combustion engines — which light off air and fuel in a combustion chamber — are starved for power in high-altitude thin air, electric motors just keep on humming.
The lap was well off the Hill Climb record — also set by Dumas in an electric VW supercar — which is just under 8 minutes. Part of that gap involved a 26-second delay on course when the SuperTruck came to a complete stop and had to be rebooted by the driver. The truck’s improbable feat follows the debut of the 1,400-horse SuperVan 4.2 at the 2023 Hill Climb event.
“The progression of Ford EV’s taking on and completing the toughest challenges is a major testament to the hard work and dedication our teams have put into the program,” said Ford Performance boss Mark Rushbrook. “We learned a great deal from SuperVan 4.2 in last year’s Pikes Peak International Hill climb and were able to apply that knowledge to this year’s run.”
SuperVan recorded a slightly-quicker time of 8.47.7 in the same Open Class. In addition to horsepower, the SuperTruck’s 6,000 pounds of downforce was key to a fast time on the uphill circuit, given its high-speed corners and harrowing drop-offs at road’s edge.
Ford has touted the speed of its battery-powered models with a series of EV Demonstrator vehicles. Its electric dragster, the Cobra Ket 1800, holds the National Hot Rod Association record for the fastest quarter-mile record: 7.76 seconds at 180 mph. Race shop RTR Vehicles helped Ford Performance develop the drifting, all-wheel-drive, seven-motor, Mustang Mach-E 1400 and mud-slinging Lightning Switchgear off-road truck.
Supertruck’s feat comes in the wake of slowing sales for EVs like the F-150 Lightning. Ford last year planned to produced 3,200 Lightnings per week but has slowed that to 1,600 on softening demand. Ford reduced production to one shift at its Michigan Rouge Electric Vehicle Center in April.
“The Ford SuperTruck reflects well on EVs in a market where buyers are increasingly doubtful about EVs’ performance,” said Executive Analyst Karl Brauer of iSeeCars. “But buyers have been shying from EV trucks because they need pickups to do things like carry payload and tow.”
While the Cobra Jet EV dragster and Mustang Mach-E are in sync with the Mustang sub-brand’s speed culture, he questioned the SuperTruck’s purpose.
“Touting the capabilities of their products is what automakers do,” said the veteran analyst. “Toughness for off-road vehicles, speed for sports cars. The biggest concern of truck buyers is whether an EV has the range to tow effectively. I don’t know how many truck owners are going to race their truck.”
The SuperTruck and SuperVan were both developed in conjunction with the Austria-based Stohl Advanced Research and Development, which specializes in battery-fired race and rally beasts.
Henry Payne is auto critic for The Detroit News. Find him at hpayne@detroitnews.com or @HenryEPayne.