Ford SuperTruck lays down GTD-besting 'ring lap
Fresh from Goodwood glory, the F-150 Lightning is now the fifth fastest prototype ever at the Nordschleife
Nobody can fault Ford’s commitment to the Nurburgring right now. Having lapped under seven minutes not just once but twice with the awesome Mustang GTD, it’s now returned with its brace of monster EVs, the SuperVan and SuperTruck. Both went faster than the V8, of course, with the Transit-looking one recording a 6:48.2 and the F-150-shaped beast setting a 6:43.482.
While it’s easy these days to be a bit blasé about Nordschleife laps, that’s a formidably fast time for anything on four wheels. ‘Fifth fastest prototype lap in history’ is a little bit misleading, because that classifies everything from a Porsche 919 Hybrid Evo (that wild 5:19.546 from 2018) to the VW Golf GTI Edition 50 (because it wasn’t yet a production vehicle), but when the only cars ahead are the Porsche, the Lotus Evija X, the VW ID.R and the Xiaomi, you’re in the fast car club. As well as the mega Mustang, both EVs were faster than the recent barrage of Corvette laps (which might make Ford feel a bit better about being gazumped) and the current GT3 RS. With about four times the power, sure, but it’s hardly like these silhouettes naturally lend themselves to lap times. And check out the onboard - in something so vast, the North Loop looks narrower than the Goodwood hill did.
Romain Dumas was driving both SuperVan and SuperTruck, meaning he now claims two of the top five times (having piloted the ID.R also). And if you’re wondering why there’s any need to lap concept vehicles of cars that won’t exist at the Nordschleife, Ford is more than prepared with answers. ‘When you know your tech can handle six minutes of Nürburgring abuse, you know it'll handle anything real life dishes out’, is the basic answer. While nobody will be able to buy 2,000hp vans and trucks from Ford, the battery and the motor tech will likely make it to series Transits and F-150s in time. They’re test beds, to some extent, just more interesting than the usual fare. Or, as Ford likes to put it: ‘Those aerodynamics lessons we learned running through corners? They make your F-150 Lightning more efficient on the highway. The systems that kept our batteries happy during six minutes of hell? They'll keep working when you're stuck in summer traffic.’ There’s a good scriptwriter in PR there right now.
The firm hasn’t suggested that any more lap times will follow - though, as the GTD attempt demonstrated, they’re more than willing to keep going if there’s more speed to find. If these things can be made to go any faster, rest assured Ford is going to make it happen. And we’ll be glued to YouTube for six and a half minutes all over again.
Too bad it easily left 10s on the table through a limited top speed and it clearly running out of steam, erm, electrons, towards the end of the lap.
Nothing wrong with it just being a marketing/brand awareness stunt of course, but it would be interesting to know. That said, I think I'd rather they were focusing a bit more energy (ha!) on fixing their European car line-up than on making superfast EV prototypes...
Gassing Station | General Gassing | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff