Tough truck: where were you in ‘92?

Ford’s F150 has carved a proud history in motorsport here and overseas for 40 years or more. It’s been out in the Baja deserts, won in the high country of Nevada, and various versions have been built as privateer and factory-supported racers. The F150, after all, is the Blue Oval’s most popular truck of all time, best seller of all the F Series trucks going back to the beginning of ‘F-history’ in 1948.

How many F Series trucks have been built? Try 40 million. There are currently 16 million F Series trucks on US roads. The most popular is the F-150, currently in its 14th generation. Since 1977, the F-Series has been the best-selling pickup truck line in the United States; it has been the highest-selling vehicle overall since 1981.

So it is natural that F-trucks would find their way into both 4WD sport and off-road racing. In New Zealand, that has mostly been in the higher speed off-road racing world than in 4WD sport, simply because much of the latter here has tended to be in gnarly farm locations where a short wheelbase is essential.

Even a short F150 is still a long truck.

There have been a number of similar big Fords in the sport in New Zealand including the one owned by Mike Hughes (originally built from a US Trophy Truck chassis imported by Warren Arthur at AFWE in Auckland); a fibreglass-bodied red Ford Bronco (with CNG fuel setup) raced by Clement Chan back in the 1980s, and a much later model silver F150 ‘pre-runner’ currently hidden away in the South Island that hasn’t yet showed its face in competition. The latter is apparently quietly for sale.

Last century, Auckland racer Warren Arthur of AFWE was doing great trade bringing in American road and 4WD vehicles for an avid local market who wanted to drive something with an evocative name-plate on it. Dodge, Chev, Ford were the order of the day.

Among all the vehicles that arrived for customers was a slightly ‘pre-loved’ Ford chassis ‘built Ford tough’ for off-road race use. Re-assembled by the AFWE team, it raced with and without a canopy and with a series of ever-more powerful V8 engines, always at the front of the class.

Now, the big Ford is owned by expat Kiwi Mike Hughes, who intends to race it at next year’s Taupo 1000.