Last week, Ford dropped a bombshell on the world of motorsports when it revealed that it would be making its return to Formula 1 racing, a sport that it departed back in 2004 after many successful years. The Blue Oval will be teaming up with Red Bull Racing and providing the team with power units, a partnership that will help the automaker develop its next generation of electrified powertrains for road use, too. However, there was one more interesting tidbit that came out of this announcement – FoMoCo is also working on a brand new Ford F-150 Lightning performance demonstrator vehicle, which CEO Jim Farley just teased via Twitter.
.@FordPerformance has built some really special EV performance demonstrators. I gave @danielricciardo a sneak peek of the latest concept at our design studio today. More soon! pic.twitter.com/Bq1CoJihZR
— Jim Farley (@jimfarley98) February 9, 2023
Alongside F1 driver Daniel Ricciardo at Ford’s design studio, Farley pulled just enough of the cover off of this special, one-off Ford F-150 Lightning demonstrator to give us a sneak peek at what to expect, and, well, it looks pretty darn wild. The truck sits fairly low to the ground as one might expect, and is wearing what appears to be a set of very large wheels and tires. Finished in white, there is a unique set of blue/purple graphics adorning the front bumper, as well as the front lip, with a splash of color present on the white wheels as well.
In terms of performance, this Ford F-150 Lightning demonstrator vehicle will likely offer plenty of that, judging from what we’ve seen in the past with the Ford Mustang Mach-E 1400, Ford Mustang Cobra Jet 1400, Ford Pro Electric Supervan, and 1978 F-100 Eluminator Concept – each of which truly push the envelop of all-electric performance. And that’s precisely what this new hi-po F-150 Lightning will most likely do, too – show us what’s possible with the popular EV pickup, at least in terms of all-out, tire-smoking performance.
We’ll have more on the F-150 Lightning performance demonstrator soon, so be sure and subscribe to Ford Authority for the latest Ford F-Series news, Ford F-150 news, F-150 Lightning news, and non-stop Ford news coverage.
Comments
What a joke if your not selling it whats the point. They need to badly upgrade the Mach E GT performance so it not just a 5 second ride that turns into slow ride the rest of the time.
The Point? Advertising. Buzz. Bragging rights.
Not everything has to be homologated for production to achieve these.
Farley should be trying to pull Ford out of the dive into bankruptcy instead of producing dreams. Get back to quality and vehicles that people really want….what’s your take RW?
Ford’s hardly at risk of bankruptcy.
Ford has massively cut it’s structural cash burners by axing plants, platforms, models, and build combos, and it’s got more potential in plants, personnel, dealers, distribution, financing (these last 3 are good for about 2,500$ in profit per vehicle, higher customer satisfaction, and haven’t been implemented yet.)
Just the services side of Ford PRO has significant upside potential.
Ford is getting back to quality by developing new platforms applying best practice DFMA and reduced BOM part counts; BEV is a great enabler of this (by driving the development of completely new platforms with vastly simplified PT.)
Most people really do want BEV vehicles affordability is currently a challenge but will ease as scaled manufacturing and competition heats up.
As cost drops and more folks experience BEV driving and simplicity of ownership, and fast charge battery chemistries evolve and charging points become ubiquitous, demand will increase.
As for F1, it was kind of a mystery to me but after due consideration, I realize that a) it has a huge worldwide audience, b) that audience is growing in the USA, c) folks really love their team, d) Red Bull is a youth oriented brand, e) Ford provides engines (far cheaper than the costs for chassis and team expenses), f) great way to get young buyers to develop an aspirational interest in Ford (cheaper than selling money losing small cars), g) more effective than conventional advertising. Caveat: as long as they win, place or show.
Well written did Farley help you with that response? It does not take much for them to fall once again, especially as their quality is non existent and the market is flooded with many manufacturers and their products.
Oh and I see you did not comment on the ridiculous I pad dash on the new Mustang what a joke but I’m sure you like it.
Oh Matt, your reply is rather stupid but I’ll address it.
(Ask a FA question get a FO answer. Write a FA reply get a FO answer.)
I’m sorry that you don’t comprehend intelligent big people talk or how we can write useful things without help from other big people but maybe that’s just not part of your butthurt life experience.
Sorry not sorry to pop your little silly bubble of speculative conjecture but it would actually take a series of things not presently foreseeable for Ford to fail, and the bar to the causes and magnitudes necessary to do that rise each time Ford makes another improvement.
Speaking of butthurt, I didn’t comment on the Mustang dash because I didn’t read it.
Whether one likes iPad dash or not is an individual matter of taste. (But to be honest I envision myself as more of a non iPad dash guy but who knows.)
Only joke here is the poor quality of your response to informed opinion and reasoned analysis.
Ps Re the flat panel in the mustang I’d have to see it from a different perspective as the perspective in the pic is a little odd. (It could be cool if there were a screen with a bunch of little gauges giving real time info like pressures, temperatures, g’s, traction coefficients, etc. Such a thing is unlikely to happen as it would be unnecessarily distracting.)
It maybe timely to say….
SO THERE…TAKE THAT…ALL YOU CONSTIPATED BLOG HOLES !
Thankyou for your participation.
I’m glad you did Mike … the accuracy of your comment is a wonderful encapsulation displaying expansive poetic artistry within the economy of a haiku.