Ford is no stranger to outlandish electric race cars. In 2022, it unveiled an ultra-high-performance version of the Ford Transit EV at the Goodwood Festival of Speed, humbling supercars from Porsche, Ferrari, and McLaren at the British hill climb. The year after that, the improved SuperVan 4.2 made its appearance on the slopes of Pikes Peak, walking away with a class victory. But while the SuperVan is certainly spectacular, it is also a product of Ford’s UK division. The all-American brand needed a more all-American spectacle, and this year, we got it in the form of the new F-150 Lighting SuperTruck.
Like the SuperVan 4.2, its first appearance was at the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb, but this time, Ford walked away with not just a class victory but the fastest time of the day while leaving hints that there is plenty more potential in the truck. This wild electric race truck is a one-off prototype meant to demonstrate just what Ford is capable of and shares almost nothing with the F-150 Lightning you will find at your Ford dealer, but its achievements are both a sign of Ford’s commitment to electric trucks and something that will inform the development of future electric vehicles.
The Makings of a SuperTruck
From the outside, the SuperTruck resembles the F-150 Lightning––provided you’re looking at it from a good distance away and don’t have your glasses. A massive triple-element rear wing and huge front splitter disrupt the classic pickup truck silhouette, and things get even wilder when you take a closer look. The side mirrors have been replaced by dive planes, and instead of headlights, the truck has giant slotted ducts to help with cooling. Walk around to the rear of the vehicle, and you will be greeted by a diffuser big enough to swallow a small car and the “bed” turns out to be a cover that fails to conceal a tangle of high-voltage orange cables for the electric powertrain.
Ford claims that all those aero elements are sufficient to generate over three tons of downforce, which would be nearly enough for your off-the-shelf F-150 Lightning to drive upside down. Of course, the SuperTruck would have no problem with that feat since this model is only a body-on-frame model in the loosest of senses, being formed of a lightweight carbon fiber shell wrapped around a tube-chassis frame. Every possible measure to shave off pounds has been taken, including cutting the battery capacity from 131 kWh down to 50 kWh––just enough to run the 12.5-mile Pikes Peak course at full power––and switching to a weight-saving Lithium-Polymer Nickel Manganese Cobalt chemistry.
While the battery shrank, Ford decided to add a third motor to the truck, giving it a total of over 1,600 hp to play with. These motors were produced by STARD, which also builds the electric Ford Fiesta World Rallycross cars. While most of the design features of the SuperTruck are the sort of motorsports elements that will never make their way to a production vehicle, a three-motor configuration isn’t outside the world of possibility. The Tesla Cybertruck and Rivian R1T both offer three motors in their top trims, so making it an option for the production F-150 Lightning could well be on the table.
Facing the World’s Most Challenging Hill Climb
While the F-150 Lightning SuperTruck is a spectacular piece of engineering, cars (or, in this case, trucks) are meant to be driven. While no formal race series will allow a 1,600-hp electric pickup truck to compete, the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb doesn’t care what you enter as long as it’s fast. In an age when even F1 seems more concerned about putting on a good show than pushing the boundaries of technology, Pikes Peak has become the stage where manufacturers can put the wildest cars to the test and display the full extent of their technical prowess.
Towering over Colorado Springs, Pikes Peak is one of the tallest mountains in the lower 48. The single road winding its way to the top contains no fewer than 156 corners (two more than the infamous Nürburgring Nordschleife), including multiple back-to-back hairpins. There are no tire walls or runoff zones, with any mistake sending drivers either plowing into a tree or careening off a sheer cliff.
The 9,413 feet of elevation change also plays havoc with gasoline vehicles, with atmospheric pressure at the almost three-mile-high summit dropping by roughly a third compared to at sea level. Forced induction is virtually a necessity to keep engines from running out of breath, but electric motors have no such weakness, making them the favored method of propulsion for the team with an eye on the ultimate prize.
Going for Gold at Pikes Peak
The advantages of electrification were first demonstrated when a small Latvian company brought an electric race car to the mountain for the 2015 event, setting a time of 9:07.22 and walking away with a first-place finish. After that, the big boys entered the game, with Volkswagen bringing its purpose-built ID.R Pikes Peak race car out to play in 2018. Although it only developed 670 hp from its four electric motors, the ID.R set a blistering time of 7:57.148, becoming the first (and so far, only) car to complete a sub-eight-minute run up the mountain.
Behind the wheel for this record run was Romain Dumas, a French driver who rose to fame in the World Endurance Championship and has two first-place finishes and three class wins at the 24 Hours of Le Mans to his name––a race he competed in every year from 2001 to 2023. He was no stranger to Pikes Peak in 2018, having previously set the fastest time of the day in 2014, 2016, and 2017 while driving a Norma M20 prototype. Romain Dumas again showed off his skills last year, this time piloting the Ford SuperVan 4.2. While his time of 8:47.682 was nearly a minute off his record run, it was enough to establish a new Open Class record.
So, when Ford decided to take the SuperTruck to Pikes Peak this year, there was only one driver to turn to. While Ford was the only manufacturer entering a no-holds-barred vehicle like the SuperTruck, Romain Dumas still had his work cut out for him to take the best time of the day. Among the competition were a pair of factory-backed Hyundai IONIQ 5 N electric race cars driven by Hyundai Motorsport WRC driver Dani Sordo and Pikes Peak veteran Randy Pobst. The field of private drivers also posed their own threat, driving everything from purpose-built open-wheel cars to retired Le Mans prototypes and high-end supercars.
Prevailing Through Difficulties
When the dust settled on the 2024 Pikes Peak International Hill Climb, no fewer than eight cars managed to make it to the summit in less than ten minutes, but only one broke through the nine-minute barrier. With Romain Dumas in the driver’s seat, the F-150 Lightning Super Truck set a time of 8:53.553, taking the fastest time of the day by a margin of over 10 seconds. Even with a WRC driver at the helm, the faster of the two Hyundai entries finished over 30 seconds behind the Ford, giving the Blue Oval the bragging rights over the Korean brand.
While finishing almost five seconds behind his SuperVan 4.2 run last year might seem like a disappointment, the final time doesn’t tell the full story of what happened. The brand-new SuperTruck experienced technical issues shortly after getting the green flag, forcing Romain Dumas to a complete stop on the course while he restarted the vehicle. This added an estimated 26 seconds to his run, which would have kicked any lesser car and driver out of the running entirely. Prior to the race, the SuperTruck had set a qualifying time more than seven seconds faster than the SuperVan, and without the unplanned stop, it would likely have posted a time of under 8:30, making it the third-fastest run in Pikes Peak history.
Is There More to Come From the SuperTruck?
While Ford has not yet announced its future plans for the F-150 Lightning SuperTruck, there is a good chance that the 2024 Pikes Peak run was just the start for this insane piece of engineering. The F-150 Lightning has become something of a flagship for the Ford brand, demonstrating the power of electrification in a model that is virtually synonymous with the Blue Oval. It only makes sense that Ford will want to keep the SuperTruck in the spotlight as a way to advertise its electric pickup. The SuperVan has been through several evolutions, and who knows what the result will be if the SuperTruck is given the same treatment. It may even be able to upset the ID.R as the fastest car on Pikes Peak.
