Ford Reveals Mustang Mach-E Pikes Peak Monster
Image Credit: Ford Performance.
Or is it just a pony with a rocket strapped on? Whichever it is, it's a gift from Ford Performance. You know, the folks who occasionally remember they build cars for the road, in between crafting ludicrous machines designed to conquer one very specific, very tall, and rather twisty bit of Colorado. This time, Ford rummaged through the parts bin, found something vaguely resembling a Mustang Mach-E, and gave it the "Super" treatment for the 2025 Pikes Peak International Hill Climb. And when I say "vaguely resembling," I mean it in the same way a house cat vaguely resembles a saber-toothed tiger. Or is it the other way around?
Pikes Peak. The "Race to the Clouds." It's been an annual pilgrimage for petrolheads for over a century, a 12.42-mile dash up a mountain that climbs to over 14,000 feet. Imagine trying to sprint up a skyscraper, but the stairs are 156 turns, and the air gets so thin your lungs start sending angry letters to management. It's the sort of place where internal combustion engines traditionally went to wheeze and gasp for breath. But, and here's the electric kicker, it's become a bit of a playground for the battery brigade. Turns out, electric motors don't much care if the air is thinner than a supermodel's alibi; they just keep spinning.
Image Credit: Ford Performance.
Ford has been rather keen on this whole electric demonstrator thing at Pikes Peak. Last year, their F-150 "Supertruck" – which, again, bore only a passing, possibly coincidental, resemblance to an actual F-150 – managed to be the fastest thing up the hill, the "King of the Mountain." The year before, their SuperVan, driven by the talented Frenchman Romain Dumas, also did quite well, snagging a class win and second overall. So, naturally, for 2025, Ford is aiming for… something. A three-peat of something spectacular, no doubt.
Enter the "Super Mustang Mach-E." We first got a glimpse of this electrifying steed back in January, draped under a sheet like a lumpy ghost. All we could really see was a massive spoiler – the sort of thing that wouldn't look out of place on a space shuttle – and a glowing pony emblem. Confirmation, if any were needed, that Ford had indeed found a Mach-E badge and decided to build a land-based missile around it.
Image Credit: Ford Performance.
Ford has finally whipped the sheet off, and… crikey. If the standard Mach-E is a sensible electric SUV for taking the kids to soccer practice (assuming soccer practice is at the top of a mountain with questionable guardrails), this "Super" version is its unhinged, carbon-fiber-clad cousin who mainlines adrenaline and thinks downforce is a food group.
Ford Performance proudly announced this creation will generate a colossal 6,125 pounds of downforce. To put that into a very important perspective, at certain speeds, this thing could theoretically drive upside down in a tunnel, though I wouldn't recommend trying it, especially if you've just had lunch. That's significantly more than the car itself weighs, meaning it's being squashed onto the tarmac with the kind of enthusiasm usually reserved for a hydraulic press.
Image Credit: Ford Performance.
I have no idea what sort of electric wizardry is lurking beneath the aggressively sculpted bodywork since Ford hasn't spilled all the beans yet. If its predecessors, the SuperTruck and SuperVan, are anything to go by, we can expect multiple motors, enough horsepower to embarrass a small nation's power grid, and a battery pack that's probably cooled by unicorn tears. The whispers suggest it might share some powertrain DNA with the F-150 SuperTruck, which had a tri-motor setup and something in the region of 1,600 horsepower. Subtlety is so overrated when you're trying to defy gravity and aerodynamic drag at nosebleed altitudes.
And who's the brave soul tasked with wrestling this electric beast up the 156 turns and 4,720-foot climb to the 14,107-foot summit? None other than the aforementioned Romain Dumas. This isn't his first rodeo, or indeed, his first Pikes Peak barbecue. He's a seasoned veteran of endurance racing – Le Mans, Nürburgring, Daytona, you name it, he's probably driven it, and driven it fast. More importantly, he's a five-time Pikes Peak winner, and two of those victories have been with Ford in their recent electric escapades. He even holds the outright Pikes Peak record, a mind-boggling 7 minutes and 57.148 seconds, set in the Volkswagen I.D. R back in 2018. So, the man knows his way up this particular lump of granite.
Image Credit: Ford Performance.
Ford's been mucking about at Pikes Peak since 1916 when a plucky Model T chugged its way to the top in a leisurely 28 minutes. Times, and technologies, have changed just a tad. This Super Mustang Mach-E, if we can still call it that, is less about chugging and more about silent, terrifying speed. It's a rolling laboratory to show what electric power can do when engineers are let off the leash and told to go a bit bonkers.
Can Ford and Dumas pull off another victory? Can they make it three years of electric dominance in one form or another? The potential is certainly there. The car looks like it was designed by someone who really, really likes angles and wings. Dumas is clearly capable of taming such a beast. And electric power, as we've seen, is a potent weapon on this particular battlefield.
Image Credit: Ford Performance.
But let's not forget that Pikes Peak is a fickle mistress. The weather can change faster than a politician's mind; one wrong move on those cliff-hugging turns can lead to a very bad day, and even the most advanced machinery can throw a tantrum. Remember last year, Dumas's SuperTruck had a bit of a hiccup, a temporary shutdown? Yet, he still managed to win. That tells you something about the driver's skill and the machine's raw pace, but also highlights how quickly things can go sideways.
The real question is whether this "Mustang" – and I use the term loosely, with a raised eyebrow and a wry smile – has what it takes to not just win, but to challenge that outright record. Volkswagen set a high bar. Ford seems determined to at least give it a nudge. It's all part of the glorious, slightly unhinged spectacle that is Pikes Peak. I'll be watching, popcorn in hand, on June 22, 2025, to see if this electric pony, pumped up on technological steroids, can truly fly to the clouds.
