Hot damn, please let them build this. :o


TESTING

Hunkered down and decked out in flat-gray primer for its shakedown tests at Grattan Raceway Park in Michigan, the truck embodying Ford Racing's latest brainstorms looked like a refugee from a circa-1960 hot rod shop. But the stirring sounds broadcast by a quartet of tail pipes and the moves it made at the track revealed it as a product of the new millennium. Blending a traditional appearance with state-of-the-art technology is no mean feat, but the FR100 pulls off the task convincingly.

In every other respect, the FR100 passed its initiation test with flying colors. It demonstrated balanced grip, minimal body roll, no tendency to squat or dive, and fierce acceleration. The 7000 rpm engine crying out from under the softly rounded 1950s-era hood seemed a bit uncanny -- like John Glen piloting the space shuttle. But if double overhead cams and electronic fuel injection can operate happily here, they'll be just as comfortably at home under the hood of a vintage Mustang, street rod, or classic truck project.


Using only the middle three gears in its six-speed transmission, the FR100 easily pegged its 120-mph speedometer at the end of the straightaway. Without using all of the braking and cornering capability built into this truck, test driver Jay O'Connell circulated the 10-turn 2.0-mile road course at an average time only 2 mph slower than the 415-horsepower Mustang FR500’s average time around Grattan..