The recently announced 3.5l EcoBoost unit for the Ford F-150 will be baptized by fire in the Tecate SCORE Baja 1000 desert race, scheduled to begin in November. To make matters even more interesting, the engine which will be fitted into the pickup for the race has been randomly selected off the assembly line of the Cleveland Engine Plant. This way, nobody will be able to say Ford cheated in some way or another.
To enter the market next year in the F-150 lineup, the 3.5l unit develops 365 horsepower at 5,000 rpm and 420 lb.-ft. of torque at 2,500 rpm (a figure which is, according to Ford, best-in-class). Up to 90 percent of the peak torque is available from 1,700 rpm to 5,000 rpm.
The engine uses several technologies which will help it keep the yet unannounced consumption figure to the minimum, like twin independent variable camshaft timing (Ti-VCT). The extremely demanding testing Ford says it has subjected the engine to will ensure that the unit can perform great in the toughest of conditions.
After all, the new unit has some big expectations to live up to. Ford models have won more Baja 1000 titles than any other four-wheel manufacturer ever managed to: 13 titles.
“From the start, we have pledged that this solution applies to any engine and any customer. The EcoBoost truck engine for the 2011 F-150 will deliver those attributes and has been specially tuned and tested to deliver the best-in-class towing and capability our truck customers demand,” Derrick Kuzak, group vice president, Global Product Development said when the engine was introduced earlier this week..
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