In some circles, Jerry Green would be considered a lucky man. How many people do you know that work for one of the biggest automotive companies in the world, get a rockin' discount on the product, and then get paid to experiment with it? Jerry gets to do just that. The company is Ford Motor Company. The project is his '01 Lightning pick up affectionately named "Casper". This 4,700-pound brick has run as fast as 12.42 at 108 mph in the quarter-mile with fair to decent air. Great e.t.s and daily driveability is well known with these trucks right from Ford, but low-twelve second timeslips come from the help of master tuner Paul Svinicki and his company Paul's High Performance (517/764-7661). Casper is the beneficiary of a couple of prototype parts with a possible future. One of those parts is a new Eaton differential that is more of an upgrade to the current unit used in the production Lightning. This differential is similar in design to the one used now, but inside there are new carbon fiber friction plates and multiple higher pressure springs. When driven hard, the stock internal spring can weaken and power is only transferred to one wheel. The new springs and plates are designed to resolve this and will hopefully become available on future Ford trucks.

The supercharger is a bit of a prototype also. It is basically a stock M112 blower with different rotors. Instead of the stock epoxy coating which can flake off if ran at too close of a tolerance, the rotors are coated with carbon fiber. This has two benefits. The rotors can be run at closer tolerances than normal, and if they touch each other or the case, the carbon will only make a bit of dust instead of flaking off in small chunks like the epoxy does. The closer tolerances allows the blower to make a couple extra pounds of boost without any other changes and does not create any major changes in heat. Part of this is of course from the insulating capabilities of the carbon fiber. Will this technology trickle down to production? Green doesn't know for sure but he believes that Eaton rebuilders or remanufacturers should have access to it some day.

Other modifications to the truck are easily available to the average enthusiast through Paul's High Performance. First is a PHP-modified high flow supercharger inlet and a single-blade billet throttlebody. Upstream of the Pro-M mass-air meter is a kit from PHP for the inlet to the air cleaner assembly. This includes some cutting on the truck but goes a long way towards getting the required air into the engine. Allowing the exhaust to exit easier is a full exhaust system from Bassani that includes equal-length headers and a high flow Y-pipe with aftermarket catalyst and a high-flow exhaust system. Lastly, Paul Svinicki created a custom computer chip program in conjunction with Superchips. This chip is only available from Paul's, by the way. The rest of the modifications have been done in the area of traction control. A set of Mickey Thompson ET Streets are used to get maximum hook as the special-built PHP/Penske rear shocks allow the truck to settle in for a good launch. All these modifications have spun the roller of PHP's chassis dyno to 420hp and 580 lbs/ft of torque. Now that's an experiment Ford should be proud of!