Ford showcases 1,200hp Megazilla 2.0 V8 crate
Nothing less than the 'the most powerful crate engine ever created by an automaker', says Ford
All go in the US today. You might have heard. As widely expected, the Democrats have flipped the Senate and the House of Representatives. Or as the BBC puts it, ‘voters resoundingly reject Trump’s Republicans’. The New York Times has gone one further, suggesting this is the ‘beginning of the end to the Trump era’. That remains to be seen, of course. Plenty of sitting Presidents have suffered an electoral backlash during the midterms. But the idea that America might be on the cusp of a genuine ideological shift is a compelling one.
The perfect moment then, for Ford to showcase Megazilla 2.0, the crate engine that encapsulates so many of the loveable things about the US. For a start, there is the concept of OEM crate engines, which don’t really work as a business model at all unless you have a suitably large and cash-rich enthusiast market to sell them to. Then there are the brazenly sizeist attitudes toward the engines themselves. Sure, you can buy smaller engines in a box - but the implication is that real fans buy enormous engines with silly names.
Behold then Ford’s latest effort: the Megazilla 2.0. Is it forward-thinking about plug-in-able? Is it heck. It’s a supercharged 7.3-litre V8. One that can deliver over 1,200hp and 1,000lb ft of torque. Even its maker admits it’s outrageous. And also ‘the most powerful crate engine ever created by an automaker’, which is quite some statement when you consider where the market has already dared to tread. And while battery power has anaesthetised us to big numbers, the fact that the Cosworth-built V16 in the Bugatti Tourbillon only outputs 1,000hp serves as a useful (i.e. bonkers) benchmark.
To reliably access the excess, Ford points out that the V8 is ‘not Megazilla 1.0 with a supercharger bolted on’ - Megazilla 1.0 also being a constituent of the 7.3-litre family. Rather, the manufacturer says, the engine is a ‘new development program with a stronger block, supercharger-specific camshaft, upgraded pistons, larger fuel injectors, a different belt drive and damper’ and, lest we fail to underline its presence, a Gen 6 Whipple blower that itself boasts a 3.0-litre displacement.
Needless to say, Megazilla 2.0 is not only the flagship motor in the Ford Racing Parts catalogue, it is also intended ‘to draw people in’ and show the ceiling of what is possible from a project standpoint. This is better done with an actual car than a picture of a crate, so Ford has constructed something called the ‘Frostwarden’ around it. Which is basically a modified Bronco that used ‘Arctic search-and-rescue rig’ as a conceptual starting point.
With its 42-inch tyres, portal gear lifts and comically wide tracks, the resulting show car obviously makes for perfect SEMA show stand filler, but Ford suggests the car’s real value is as a conversation starter with ‘the builders, fabricators and customers who shape the aftermarket’. Presumably those conversations will eventually veer to the question of cost - one, for now, Ford has left unanswered. But with the original Megazilla hovering around the £20k mark, you can expect the final sum to be no less eye-opening than the power output. God bless America, indeed.
But I digress: this engine is a beautiful piece of mental machinery.
The US really are the last bastion of proper petrolheadedness.
An Ultima is around a ton, most are built with sort of 400 to 800 bhp and are pretty mental, if you drive a car with 600 bhp, are you really going to say "What this needs is double the power" ?
Is a 500 bhp LS engine going to feel a bit limp, I dont really think so.
Its like ordering food when you are hungry I always think, very easy to overshoot, would rather have something where you can use full throttle without having to back out, spinning or doing 200 mph.
I drive my lads 600 plus bhp Monaro from time to time and part of me thinks a bit less power an N/A may be the sweet spot, its great but its pretty lairy, god knows what almost double in a 600 kilos lighter car would be like.
An Ultima is around a ton, most are built with sort of 400 to 800 bhp and are pretty mental, if you drive a car with 600 bhp, are you really going to say "What this needs is double the power" ?
Is a 500 bhp LS engine going to feel a bit limp, I dont really think so.
Its like ordering food when you are hungry I always think, very easy to overshoot, would rather have something where you can use full throttle without having to back out, spinning or doing 200 mph.
I drive my lads 600 plus bhp Monaro from time to time and part of me thinks a bit less power an N/A may be the sweet spot, its great but its pretty lairy, god knows what almost double in a 600 kilos lighter car would be like.
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