Is it possible to get an adrenaline rush while developing new technologies? It certainly seems to be the case for the people at Ford Performance who continuously push the boundaries with their all-electric EV demonstrators.
The high-performance division of Ford Motor Company has made a concerted effort in the past few years to see how much power it can deliver instantaneously in specialty EVs without sacrificing in other areas of performance.
It's not trying to replace the internal combustion engines used in NASCAR or other racing series. It just wants to break new ground while working in collaboration with Vaughn Gittin Jr.'s RTR Vehicles.
Can you create a truck with 1,600 horsepower that can claim King of the Mountain at the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb? Can you create a van that sets lap records at the iconic Mount Panorama Circuit in Australia? Can you create an electric 1,800-horsepower Mustang that sets a world record at the NHRA Winter Nationals?
Can you create an electric F-150 that is equally comfortable hitting off-road jumps and doing extensive burnouts through an industrial park?
The answer is a resounding "Yes."
Photo credit: Ford Performance
"We've experimented a lot in full electric demonstrator space over the last four years," Mark Rushbrook, global director of Ford Performance, told AltDriver earlier this season. "We've done that in NHRA with our Cobra Jet (1400), Super Cobra Jet (1800); with our Mach-E 1400 for drifting; and road course with the Pikes Peak SuperVan 4.2 and the SuperTruck.
"We've learned so much in those spaces around electric at high performance, extreme performance."
The creation of an EV demonstrator
The results of this extensive work are easy to see. These EV demonstrators have traveled the world while making stops at festivals and racing events. They have set world records with blisteringly fast lap times, and they have helped motorsports fans truly understand what is possible from an EV.
These aren't nondescript grocery getters.
"I mean, it just looks like it has so much power," Todd Gilliland said about the F-150 Lightning Switchgear, the newest of these EV demonstrators. "It looks good, looks fun, and, yeah, it's cool. I definitely applaud Ford for going out of the box and doing that."
But bringing these EV demonstrators to life is no small feat. The global Ford Performance team of engineers doesn't just simply put a picture of an F-150 or a Mustang on a whiteboard and say, "Put 1,600 horsepower in this!"
There is no magic wand that instantly takes these vehicles from the drawing board to the test track.
Photo credit: Ford Performance
"It's two levels of it," Brian Novak, North American Off-Road Program Manager for Ford Performance, told AltDriver. "And one of them is to show the Mach-E, and the other one is to show just our chops when it comes to electric vehicles.
"So I would say that we weren't looking at like, 'Well, it has to be 2,200 horsepower' or whatever it is. It was, 'Well, how much can we get? And we're going to go for everything we can get out of it.' Not necessarily anything else, but you can only put so much battery in it.
"You've only got so much room to work with. So you're going to get what you can out of it as we optimize the battery and push that. You can't just put it all in there to get it."
It doesn't matter if the Ford Performance team is working on the F-100 Eluminator build for SEMA or the F-150 Lightning SuperTruck; the team has to consider far more than battery power and how it can translate to top-end speed. The team has to focus on aerodynamics and downforce. It has to look at each specific vehicle and its purpose.
"I've driven Ford vehicles, I've driven racing vehicles that are all-electric," Daytona 500 winner Austin Cindric told AltDriver. "The performance application is definitely a lot different than maybe in an ICE vehicle, but it has a place in motorsports for sure. And I feel like that's sometimes hard to conceptualize without actually going out and experiencing it.
"I feel like I'm basing that most off of racing in Nitrocross with an all-electric, 1,000-horsepower car. You don't even have to wait on turbo lag, it's just like, 'Bam, you've got 1,000 horsepower. What do you want to do with it?'"
The off-road package, designed in collaboration with RTR Vehicles and built for the F-150 Lightning Switchgear, isn't going to work on the Mach-E 1400 drift car. It certainly won't work on the F-100 Eluminator, which Ford Performance based on a pickup from 1978.
The Cobra Jet 1400 and the Super Cobra Jet 1800 were the result of very focused engineering projects. Ford Performance had the goal of setting some world records on the drag strip, and the design work reflected this.
A group of 10-12 engineers worked on developing the powertrain layout and the key components for these EV dragsters. They needed everything in the Cobra Jet 1400 and Super Cobra Jet 1800 to be perfect so that the two vehicles could break records. Simply driving fast would not be enough.
The Mach-E 1400, however, was more of what Ford Performance called "a playground project" built for a specific type of fun. It needed to slide around well in drift mode, and it needed to be fast in track mode.
"When it came to the Mach-E 1400, that started life with a pre-production body in white for the Mach-E, and then we built off of that," Novak said. "So what can we do with it to make it look extreme, add the aerodynamic capability we want to? How do we do the driveline like we want? Again, you go to 'Where can I put the battery, and how can I put the battery?'
"So the Mach-E, obviously, with what that platform is, the battery can go right where it's supposed to go. Then you get to Switchgear, which was 'How do we showcase the capability of the Lightning and the well-rounded capability of an EV, that an EV can go off-road and it can go on-road and do all those things?'
"And that's how we got to say, 'Well, how do we show that with the Lightning?' So we made the two different suspension configurations of the Lightning. That's why it's Switchgear, where we have the off-road config and the on-road config. And the off-road config is proving to be the most popular one."
Creating high-powered EVs may be a newer pursuit for Ford Performance, but this division isn't simply starting from scratch. It's taking lessons learned from previous motorsports projects featuring internal combustion engines and applying them to the EV demonstrators.
The Lightning Switchgear is a fitting example. This pickup drew inspiration from Gittin Jr.'s Ultimate Fun Haver, which began life as a 2015 Ford F-150 Supercrew. RTR and Kibbetech Offroad Fabrication & Design then transformed it into a pickup that could drift on asphalt but still romp around in off-road environments.
Ford Performance didn't solely focus on the Ultimate Fun Haver. The division also looked at the off-road packages fitted onto the Bronco Raptor that won the King of Hammers and saw how some of these suspension parts could benefit the F-150 Lightning Switchgear. For example, "beefed up" control arms could certainly support improved suspension travel on difficult terrain.
Specialty testing & driver feedback
Photo credit: Ford Performance
Ford Performance has teams of incredibly smart engineers stationed around the world who design and help create these EV demonstrators, but how does the motorsports division know what tweaks to make in the testing process?
It's all about communication with other gearheads, specifically, the ones who earn a living competing behind the wheels of high-powered vehicles.
"To think that they built that thing from the ground up and designed it," Ben Rhodes told AltDriver at Charlotte Motor Speedway. "I've never driven an electric vehicle before, but it was pretty neat how silent everything was and the instant power that you have.
"I'll put it this way, I had fun."
Gittin Jr., a world champion drifter and champion off-road racer, has remained heavily involved in the process. He's provided crucial feedback to Ford Performance engineers about what works in certain vehicles. The same goes for Romain Dumas, the Ford Factory driver who scored a division win in the SuperTruck and set a world record in the SuperVan at the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb.
"You're getting the standard feedback that a driver and a racing driver is going to give you," Novak said. "'I don't like the brakes. I like the brakes. I don't like the way it applies throttle. Can you make the torque come on faster? Can you make it come on slower? I need to be able to balance it better.'"
The feedback loop doesn't end once the vehicle is complete. Ford Performance still relies on its drivers to deliver some crucial information after some time out in the real world.
Rhodes, Joey Logano, Austin Cindric, and Noah Gragson have all had opportunities to drive EV demonstrators. Other NASCAR drivers received offers but were unable to accept due to personal situations.
"I got to drive the Switchgear for a couple of days," Cindric said. "I got to show my dog (Wallace) around it, and he was all about it. He loves going for a car ride."
Photo credit: Austin Cindric
These NASCAR drivers have played around with the EV demonstrators while seeing how they handle different types of terrain. One driver, in particular, wanted to perform his own real-world test of the Switchgear's off-road capabilities.
He just didn't tell anyone at Ford Performance before doing so.
"It's one of those things with the Ford Switchgear, the F-150 Lightning, I was like, 'Man, this thing looks pretty sweet. I should go jump it,'" Gragson told AltDriver. "And I didn't really get permission. I kind of was hoping to ask for some forgiveness afterwards."
Said Cindric while chuckling, "I think I saw Noah ramped it off some stuff. I'm sure Ford appreciated that. But I didn't find anything to ramp it off.
"It was raining, so I might have just stood my foot on the gas and spun the tires a little bit, but that's about as far as I took it."
The Switchgear passed Gragson's test with flying colors, as his post on Instagram showed. Ford Performance was aware of the test after it happened, but those at the motorsports division were not upset with the Las Vegas native. After all, the Switchgear performed exactly as it should have.
"It's meant to go do stuff like that," Novak said while laughing. "So it's great to see it. And the stuff holds up, and it can do it. So that's what we built it for.
"That's some great stuff. More power to him."
The Ford Performance EV demonstrators program has delighted race car drivers, set world records, and captured wins around the globe. Yet, the motorsports division is not going to rest on its laurels. The work will continue as it pushes the program even further. This includes later in June, when the recently teased Super Mustang Mach-E takes on the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb.