FORD’S ATTACK PIKES PEAK IS AN EV IN THE FORM OF THE BRUTISH F-150 LIGHTNING SUPERTRUCK DEMONSTRATOR
The Pikes Peak International Hill Climb is one of the world’s most prestigious motorsport events, which is what usually happens to a race when it’s been around for 108 years, kicking off in 1916. It’s one of the oldest events in competitive racing, one of the toughest to compete in, as well as one of the most dangerous. It’s known as the race to the clouds because it’s a proper hillclimb that runs to the summit of Pikes Peak a whopping 4 302 m high, and the danger comes in because it runs up the side of a mountain and that means if you understeer, oversteer or just plain don’t steer, you can end up heading down a cliff and meeting your creator. The race is 20 kilometres long and features a whopping 156 turns, and that means the driver with the right car and the right setup also needs to possess the skills to keep the car shiny side up while kicking it at 10/10ths. There have been less than 10 deaths over the years, which isn’t a bad ratio considering the age of the event, but it does make it one of the most deadly, luckily cars and safety systems have improved over the years so a wipeout isn’t the end of a career or the race. With the worldwide interest in the race, as well as the way it’s covered by loads of social media platforms and race fans, automakers have started to use the event for marketing and the result is awesome. Pikes Peak is directly responsible for some of the coolest custom-built racecars at an OEM level, and of course at a privateer level too. Ford has created a few amazing cars dedicated to taming the iconic hill in recent years, just last year they unleashed the latest incarnation of the Supervan on the hill. Ford Supervan 4.2 shattered the Open Class record that was set in 2019 with a time of 9:24,433 when it crossed the end line with a time of 8:47,682. That was an amazing time set and it put a massive tick into the EV cars column. Just as an aside, the fastest car to date up Pikes Peak is a fully electric Volkswagen, and it looks like petrol or diesel-powered cars will now struggle to get to the top of a hill faster than the new electric brigade. EVs don’t need to suck in air to go fast, and there’s not much air at the top of the hill, so it makes sense.
While we’re sure Supervan 4.2 will once again head up the hill in 2024, the monstrous electric van will be accompanied by another new creation from Ford Performance in the form of the new F-150 Lightning SuperTruck EV Demonstrator. The name is a mouthful, but what new car’s name isn’t these days? The current fastest man up the hill is Romain Dumas, the French racing driver was at the wheel of the Supervan when it claimed the class record last year, and he was also the pilot at the helm of the Volkswagen I.D. R Pikes Peak when he set the fastest time up the hill, ever. It seems Dumas is the EV Whisperer, all you need to do to get a record time in an electric racecar is hand the key to the Frenchman. The Ford Performance Motorsports EV Demonstrator takes inspiration from the F-150 Lightning and has been developed in partnership with STARD Advanced R&D➕Motorsport based in Vienna. The truck merely resembles a truck, but that’s normal for these kinds of purpose-built cars, especially when they’ve been given some properly crazy and over the top aero. What you see here is capable of giving the Demonstrator over 2.7 tons of downforce at 240 km/h. This F-150 Lightning SuperTruck follows on to the recently seen F-150 Switchgear, the automaker’s high-performance on- and off-road fully-electric truck that’s basically an all-electric Raptor that developed in partnership with another Ford partner, RTR. The Ford F-150 Lightning Switchgear is based on a production Lightning and is enhanced with a bolstered suspension, carbon composite panels, skid plates and more. It features a dual-electric motor setup with a 131.0-kW/hr battery pack from the extended-range model and it's rated at a decent 433 kW of power with 1,050 Nm of torque. Ford hasn’t released the figures for the Pikes Peak version just yet, but you can rest assured that it will have the dial on those electric motors turned up to 10.
Take a look at the YouTube video that shows off this all-new, purpose-built F150-based racecar that will be seen competing at the 2024 round of the Pikes Peak International Hillclimb: FIRST LOOK: Ford F-150 Lightning Supertruck EV | CarsBySajko
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