Ford's Electric Mustang Almost Became King of the Mountain
Image Credit: Ford Performance.
Every year, a bunch of wonderfully unhinged people decide the best way to spend a summer day is to rocket up a 14,110-foot mountain in Colorado. This glorious event is called the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb. For over a century, petrol-powered machines have gasped for air on the climb, their engines wheezing like a pensioner after a flight of stairs. But now, the electric boys have shown up, and they don't need oxygen. It really resembles watching a heavyweight boxing match where one fighter isn't allowed to breathe.
For a few years now, electric vehicles have been turning up and quietly, or rather silently, dominating. The thin air that chokes a V8 to death is just a pleasant, breezy Tuesday for an electric motor. The overall record of 7 minutes and 57 seconds, was set by the all-electric VW ID.R back in 2018. So, when a manufacturer wants to show off their latest battery-powered wonder, this is where they come. And Ford keeps coming back for more.
Image Credit: Ford Performance.
Last year, their electric "SuperTruck" had a bit of a moment. It decided to take a nap mid-run and had to be rebooted, costing it a shot at the record. This year, Ford returned with a new weapon called the "Super Mustang Mach-E." Let's be clear. Calling this thing a Mustang Mach-E is like calling a great white shark a goldfish. They both swim, but that's about where the similarities end. This machine looks less like the friendly electric SUV you'd use for a school run and more like something that escaped from a top-secret aerospace lab.
What a concept, though! After sending a giant van and a pickup truck up the hill in previous years, Ford's engineers finally had the revolutionary idea to build a race car for a race. It's lower, smaller, and looks angrier than a cat in a bathtub. And the numbers Ford has shared are just delicious. They've basically taken the 1,400-horsepower powertrain from the SuperVan and stuffed it into this carbon-fiber gargoyle.
Image Credit: Ford Performance.
But the horsepower is almost the sensible part. The real headline is the aerodynamics. This car was designed to be sucked onto the road as if by a giant, invisible Hoover. At 150 miles per hour, it generates 6,125 pounds of downforce. This car certainly weighs less than 6,125 pounds. This means that, theoretically, at 150 mph, it could drive upside down on the ceiling of a tunnel. I desperately want to see them try.
To show they weren't mucking about, Ford hired the best driver they could possibly find: Romain Dumas. This is the very same Frenchman who set that unbreakable-looking record in the VW. It's the equivalent of preparing for a pub quiz and bringing Stephen Hawking along as your ringer. The message was clear: Ford wanted to win. They wanted to be the undisputed "King of the Mountain." They brought the right car and the right driver. What could possibly go wrong?
Image Credit: Ford Performance.
Ah, yes. The mountain. As it turns out, the mountain always gets a vote. The 103rd running of the race was plagued by weather that would make a polar bear complain. High winds were chucking rocks onto the track near the summit, which is generally frowned upon in motorsport. So, the organizers made the tough call to shorten the course, running it only up to the Glen Cove checkpoint at 11,440 feet. The legendary "Race to the Clouds" had its head chopped off.
This, ironically, was a terrible turn of events for the electric Ford. The higher you go, the more an internal combustion engine struggles for air, and the bigger the advantage for an EV. By cutting off the top section, the organizers effectively gave the gas-guzzling competition a fighting chance.
Image Credit: Ford Performance.
And so, the mighty Super Mustang Mach-E, with the legendary Dumas at the wheel, unleashed its silent fury on the shortened course. It set a time of 3 minutes and 42.252 seconds. This was, by a country mile, the fastest in its Pikes Peak Open class. A class win! Champagne corks popping, right? Well, sort of. While Ford was busy celebrating its class victory, a flyweight prototype in the "Unlimited" class, the Nova Proto NP01, snuck in a time five seconds faster.
Ford won its battle but lost the war for the overall fastest time. Dumas, ever the professional, simply said, "The mountain decides." He rightly pointed out that with the full course available, the thin air at the summit would have likely handed his electric beast the advantage it needed. It's a tough pill to swallow. They built a world-beating car, hired a world-beating driver, and were undone by a stiff breeze. But that's racing. And I have no doubt that Ford, being Ford, is already sketching an even more ludicrous, even more powerful electric monster for next year.
