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By Sue Mead
Ford has added an all-new electrical truck to its lineup—kind of. It likes to play within the dust and eat boulders for lunch, and it rides on 37-inch tires and sits on a specialised suspension. All of this—and extra—enable it to race throughout the desert with alacrity. Nonetheless, what’s totally different from Ford’s steady of different off-road vans is that the Switchgear runs in silence. Ford calls the high-performance off-roader a “demonstrator.” Consider it as a particular mission within the petri dish for Ford Efficiency, simply because the Ford F-150 Raptor as soon as was! The F-150 Lightning Switchgear is a excessive efficiency on- and off-road pickup based mostly on America’s best-selling electrical truck: the Ford F-150 Lightning.
Extra from the Chicago Auto Present
Ford F-150 Lightning Switchgear
Switchgear is the most recent in Ford’s Efficiency Demonstrator program, becoming a member of SuperVan 4.0 and 4.2, Mustang Mach-E 1400, Mustang CobraJet 1400 and the F-100 Eluminator—all designed to showcase the probabilities of what an electrical car might be.
The F-150 Lightning Switchgear was seen by the general public for the primary time on the grueling King of the Hammers off-road racing occasion in Johnson Valley, California, the place I used to be capable of journey alongside for some scorching laps with the famed skilled drifter and off-road racer Vaugh Gittin Jr. (JR). The Switchgear was then trailered to the Chicago Auto Present nonetheless caked in mud from one of many prime off-road playgrounds on the earth.
For these unfamiliar, the King of the Hammers occasion attracts racers, producers, aftermarket corporations, and followers for an ever-growing pilgrimage to compete, check autos, and have enjoyable for greater than two weeks in late January and early February every year.
Switchgear is a joint mission with Ford and RTR Automobiles that has been used as a testbed for pushing the boundaries of electrical vans. “We designed and constructed it in collaboration with RTR Automobiles,” defined Ford engineer Brian Novak, “It was impressed by the F-150 RTR Final Enjoyable-Haver mission car from 2016. Ford designed Switchgear’s customized exterior carbon bodywork with a Ford Efficiency 2024 livery and underpinned it with off-road upgrades to take the F-150 Lightning the place it’s by no means been.”
Switchgear upgrades embrace a big enhance in monitor over the F-150 Lightning, this to supply improved off-road stability.
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The suspension upfit consists of Fox-brand 3-inch diameter inside bypass shock absorbers, together with a customized unbiased double-wishbone suspension in entrance, and a multilink unbiased suspension on the rear, with coil-over shocks, a stabilizer bar and customized management arms. Distinctive entrance and rear bumpers enhance strategy and departure.
Further design components embrace carbon-composite entrance fenders, mattress sides, and rear bumper cowl, in addition to metal fabricated rock rails, and a entrance skid plate. The Switchgear rides on NITTO Ridge Grappler 37×12.5R18 tires.
“We have now upgraded the body of the Lightning with the intention to accommodate a heavy battery, and but present the identical towing and payload expertise {that a} common F-150 would offer whereas carrying heavier hundreds, so subsequently the body could be very sturdy. The truck additionally has the brand new shocks and new management arms that should accommodate the larger tires and the larger shocks and the bodywork was expanded to accommodate greater tires as we wanted a wider monitor with the intention to give stability to the body. The powertrain had no change.”
“It’s quiet enjoyable! Switchback can provide a silent-but-violent journey,” enthused Novak, earlier than I climbed aboard the tall truck, with JR on the wheel. “We prefer it right here as an alternative of being at Ford’s proving grounds in Michigan or Arizona–being out within the desert like that is precisely what this stuff are constructed for and that is the place they’re going to be examined. That is the actual surroundings!”
The expertise of touring in a truck at excessive speeds just isn’t new; I’ve motored greater than 30,000 miles on off-road tracks and dust programs across the globe for my work—and for enjoyable! What was new was touring at excessive speeds in silence—with no engine sound, as speeds diversified and elevated and the world moved by sooner. With the electrical motors offering instantaneous torque, Novak, JR, and I agreed it’s extra like a journey at an amusement park, the place you’re transferring shortly by means of area in an enclosed cabin however, in the event you open a window, you’ll get the frenzy of the wind in your smiling face!
F-150 Lightning Switchgear Gallery
(Click on under for enlarged photos)
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