Ken Block Presents His F-150 Hoonitruck to the Hoonigan Donut Garage
Now that Gymkhana 10 is out, have a look at the twin-turbo V6-powered F-150 star of the show, built by Detroit Speed.
Ken Block is the Bruce Springsteen of hooning. His Gymkhana series demonstrates why. From making big jumps in San Francisco, to drifting around retired passenger jets in Dubai, Block further cements with each video his place as not only an amazing rally driver, but as a legend.
This week, Block dropped his latest to the series, Gymkhana Ten: The Ultimate Tire Shredding Tour, onto YouTube. Our friends over at Motor Authority happened upon the latest installment of The Hoonigans “Build Biology” series a few days before, featuring the star of the show, the 1977 Ford F-150 Hoonitruck.
“The thing with this thing is we took everything that we learned from building and running the Hoonicorn to make this thing way better than the Hoonicorn,” said Block.
The Hoonitruck began life as a 1977 F-150, which Block chose because his late father had a 1977 F-150 when Block “was a young teenager.” Block also learned to drive in said truck, made his first burnout and jump with the truck, and raced his dirt bike out of the truck, as well.
“Obviously, I’m a Raptor guy,” Block said. “The Raptor is my daily driver that I drive the most, and the engine in that is a twin-turbo V6. So, [Ford] wanted to tie into that technology that they have. So, that’s why we ended up with a twin-turbo V6.”
And it’s not just any 3.5-liter EcoBoost V6, but one used in the development of the Ford GT program. The V6 was used in a Daytona Prototype before finding itself in the front subframe of the Hoonitruck F-150. The new setup makes 914 horsepower and 704 lb-ft of torque to all corners via a six-speed manual transmission, and is capped off by a 3D-printed metal intake by Ford Performance.
The truck itself was built by Detroit Speed, and is underpinned by a chassis divided into four sections, each connected via clevis fasteners for ease of repair and transportation on a trailer. The latter is important, as the truck is 79 inches wide at the corners, while most trailers, according to Detroit Speed projects manager Chris Porter, are 80 inches wide between the wheel wells.
“The cab is the original cab,” said Porter. “The inner door shells are actually still sheet metal. We did skin the doors, and the bedsides are all handmade aluminum.”
The front bumper is made of carbon fiber, and the entire Hoonitruck F-150 was built with filming in mind, which includes the interior. The panels surrounding the six-speed are removable to facilitate a replacement within a short period of time if the original breaks, the seats are adjustable with quick-release pins, and the transmission itself has a handle to pull it out quickly.
And while the bed may not be useful for hauling hay bales, the Hoonitruck F-150 can still haul the Hoonicorn on its trailer with the truck’s trailer hitch. There’s also a backup camera in the tailgate (just like on new F-150s), the headlights and tail lights are fully functional, and the truck even has a horn to get everyone’s attention (if they somehow missed the truck’s presence in the first place).
If you’d like to see the Hoonitruck F-150 live up to its name, all you need to do is click the link at the top of the post.
