Ford is at it again as they return to the legendary Pikes Peak International Hill Climb to attempt to win in the latest Ford Performance all electric demonstrator vehicle, the Ford F-150 Lightning SuperTruck.

The team has unfinished business in the mountain after narrowly missing out on an overall victory in 2023 with the Ford SuperVan 4.2 based on the Ford E-Transit Custom.

Like last years van, this year’s SuperTruck has been developed in conjunction with STARD Advanced Research and Development.

The F-150 Lightning EV demonstrator has been designed with a triple-element front wing and distinctive multi-element rear spoiler that stands more than 6ft high. There’s also headlight ducts, hood ducts and louvers as well as front dive-planes, side diffusers and a rear diffuser.

Tyre partner Pirelli has put the SuperTruck on magnesium forged wheels with Pirelli P-Zero tryes which hide a fully customised in-board suspension system.

Power is similar to the setup used on the SuperVan 4.2 with three STARD UHP 6-Phase Motors developing 1600hp. That’s a significant lift on the 1400hp produced by the SuperVan. A 50kWh battery stores enough energy to get the SuperTruck up the 14,115 ft summit and is made of ultra-high performance li-polymer NMC cells.

Driving the Pikes Peak F150 SuperTruck will be hill climb veteran Romain Dumas who also piloted SuperVan last year up the 156 corners of the infamous Pikes Peak hill climb in Colorado.

Hell-bent on capturing a win in the Open class at Pikes Peak last year, the SuperVan 4.2 managed to tackle the 12.4 miles of twisting mountain road not only to a class win at the 2023 race, but also to second in the overall competition. Ford narrowly missing out on first by just 7.6 seconds with an overall time of 8 minutes 47.6 seconds.

Dumas and SuperVan 4.2 did, however, shatter the previous Open class record of 9 minutes 24 seconds.

This year indicators are good that the SuperTruck will not only take the win but perhaps humble the SuperVan’s attempts from last year.

The SuperTruck managed to qualify for the race with a time of 3 minutes 32.8 seconds, 10 seconds ahead of the next fastest Wolf Aurobay GB08 in the Unlimited Class.

“After a successful 2023 climb, I’m thrilled to be behind the wheel again with this team and to help push the limits of what an electric vehicle can achieve on the turns of this legendary course,” said Dumas. “In testing, the F-150 Lightning SuperTruck has surpassed my expectations, so we are hoping for some good weather to try and do something very special.”