1997 Ford F250 4x4 Diesel on 2040-cars

Auto blog

Ford updates Power Stroke diesel V8, strengthens F-450, tweaks King Ranch

Ford is giving its F-Series Super Duty trucks some upgrades for 2015, and we're happy to say that one of them is an improved Power Stroke diesel V8. Also, Ford is strengthening the top-of-the-line F-450 to handle more abuse. And if wild west-style luxury is your thing, the automaker has performed minor cosmetic updates to its King Ranch Edition trucks, as well.
The turbocharged 6.7-liter Power Stroke V8 is currently rated at 400 horsepower and 800 pound-feet of torque, and Ford only tells us the new and improved Power Stroke can "produce power beyond today's" engine. What, then, did Ford actually improve upon? First, the Blue Oval swapped in a new, larger turbocharger. The new Garrett GT37 turbine unit is 72.5 millimeters in diameter, eclipsing the old GT32's 64-mm diameter piece. Ford states output increases with the new turbo setup, but since the new turbocharger operates at a lower peak pressure than the old one, the automaker was able to eliminate the wastegate system and reduce the engine's complexity. Ford even redesigned the turbo's oil and cooling lines to make the powerplant simpler. A byproduct of the larger turbo is better engine exhaust braking, which is controlled manually by a button on the dashboard.
Ford claims the upgraded diesel engine is more powerful, more robust, more efficient and more refined than before.

Next-gen Ford Cobra Jet development underway, but will it be a Mustang?

Ford might be stepping away from the NHRA, but it isn't abandoning drag racing altogether. Hot Rod says that Ford confirmed a next-gen Cobra Jet factory drag racer is in the works, but the report also speculates that a new Cobra Jet could switch away from the Mustang nameplate.
Even though talk of a new Cobra Jet coincides with the all-new 2015 Mustang, the lack of confirmation for the dragster's platform leaves Hot Rod to guess that the car might switch to another platform - specifically a front-drive-based, unibody car like the Fusion or Taurus. We'd hate to think of a world with a NASCAR-ized dragster from Ford Racing, but it's also highly unlikely that the Mustang Cobra Jet would step away from its quarter-mile rivals like the Chevy COPO Camaro and Dodge Challenger Drag Pak.

Ford F-Series Super Duty prototype reduced to smoldering mess of aluminum and steel [UPDATE]

The most important bit of information you need to know after looking through our high-res gallery of images depicting a prototype 2016 Ford F-Series Super Duty pickup truck burning to the ground is that nobody was hurt. There were two engineers inside the vehicle when it caught fire, and both exited to safety.
That's the good news. The bad news is that the truck, which appears to have been testing in Death Valley, appears to be a total loss, minus, of course, whatever information Ford can glean from the conflagration - particularly tracing it back to its root cause. Besides that, we're also expecting the body of the next Super Duty to be hewn from aluminum, as is the case with its smaller brother, the brand-new F-150. Note the little aluminum droppings littering the roadway as apparent proof of that.
Our spy photographers report that it took just 21 minutes for the F-Series Super Duty to burn completely to the ground. The fire appears to have started in the driver-side front wheel well, spreading to engulf the entire front end in three minutes. We can't confirm the source of the blaze, but we're curious if the car's black vinyl cladding, meant to obscure the secrets within, contributed to the fire.