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With the recent unveiling the of the 2015 Ford F-150 and its lauded offering of the 2.7L EcoBoost V6, many fans of the premier pickup were left scratching their heads. How could a 2.7L ever pass muster on a half-ton, let alone the venerable F-150?
Ford addressed this question far ahead of the official Detroit Auto Show announcement by not only doing some rigorous in-house testing, but also by doing what can be considered one of the toughest stress tests in the world. Jim Stevens, an engine performance developer for Ford, considers the EcoBoost “the perfect engine for the Baja 1000…[with its] great balance of power and torque.”
Having Ford’s newest half-ton journey almost a 1,000 miles and cross the finish line in Ensenada would show, without a doubt, just how tight and rugged the truck could be. However, a large question loomed over the project: how would the guys get the never-before-seen truck into a public venue without blowing its cover?
Foutz was handed a 2015 Ford F-150 prototype and was told to leave the truck as stock as possible–the powertrain, the brakes, the intake–and, other than a few things such as racing tires, a fuel cell, a roll cage, and some FOX shocks borrowed from a Raptor, the F-150 was built to it’s class spec’s. To disguise the truck, an all-aluminum skin was stamped in the 2014 configuration!
With only four months to get the truck ready for Baja, time was against Foutz and his crew.
Off Road Xtreme Editor Stuart Bourdon interviewed Greg Foutz, of Foutz Motorsports in Mesa, Arizona, who built the truck and oversaw the Baja race effort. “Our race in Mexico went down with no problems at all, except for delays in three different bottlenecks where other race cars that started ahead of us were tangled up or broken down in tight spots (narrow canyons) or very steep hills on the course.
Foutz explained, “We couldn’t get through, nor could many other vehicles, while these bottlenecks were cleared away and that put us behind the clock by hours, causing the truck to time-out of the race. We did bring the truck all the way to the finish line, though, and had no mechanical failures, no flat tires, never changed out one single part.”
Muddy but unscathed, the truck crossed the finish line after running the entire course of the 2013 Baja 1000, one of the most rugged off-road races in the world.
Not long after the race, Foutz got a call from the guys at Ford asking him to drive the truck to Detroit, Michigan, so it could be displayed at the North American International Auto Show. Foutz said, “When we drove it back [to Michigan], we put a temporary windshield in it (and street legal tires) because some states have real windshield laws, but structurally, the truck’s fine. It’s ready to go race again”
To learn more about the new 2015 F-150, visit Ford’s website and Facebook page.
