Ford has announced that it’s going to take on the astonishing Pikes Peak hill climb race in Colorado next month using a highly modified F-150 Lightning electric pickup truck. The F-150 Lightning SuperTruck will be following in the wheel tracks of the all-electric Transit-based SuperVan, which climbed the 4,302-metre Pikes Peak mountain in just eight minutes, 47.682 secs, last year.
Romain Dumas at the wheel
Behind the wheel will be one of the most experienced racers in the world - France’s Romain Dumas, a former Le Mans 24hrs winner with Audi, and most significantly a former Pikes Peak winner and the man who piloted Volkswagen’s astonishing ID.R electric racing car to a Pikes Peak record. Dumas also drove Ford’s electric SuperVan last year.
“After a successful 2023 climb, I’m thrilled to be behind the wheel again with this team and to help push the limits of what an electric vehicle can achieve on the turns of this legendary course,” said Dumas. ”In testing, the F-150 Lightning SuperTruck has surpassed my expectations, so we are hoping for some good weather to try and do something very special.”
1,400hp and 2,700kg of downforce
Ford has worked with STARD Advanced Research and Development - an Austrian racing car team—to develop the SuperTruck. Its aero package can generate 2,721kg of downforce at 250km/h, which is helpful when the drops off the edge of the Peak are so sheer…
To push the F-150 Lightning SuperTruck up to that kind of speed, STARD has developed six-phase motors and ultra-high-performance lithium-polymer NMC battery cells, capable of generating more than 1,400hp. STARD also worked on the electric Transit SuperVan.
The SuperTruck also gets a triple-element front wing, headlight ducts, hood ducts and louvres, front dive-planes, side diffusers, rear diffusers, and a multi-element rear wing to maximise that downforce figure. It also features carbon ceramic brakes, Pirelli P-Zero tyres on magnesium forged wheels, and a fully custom in-board suspension system.
Sine 1916
“To make the best vehicles for our customers, our research takes us racing in the harshest and most challenging conditions - the F-150 Lightning SuperTruck is the latest example of that,” said Mark Rushbrook, Global Director of Ford Performance. “Our pursuit to the top of the mountain is charged by the commitment to make all our electric vehicles more capable, more advanced, and more exciting.”
This is most certainly not the first time that Ford has taken on the daunting challenge of the Pikes Peak hillclimb. In fact, it was one of the first car companies to do so - in 1916, a Ford Model T attacked the Peak, taking 28 minutes and three seconds to reach the top.