Monday, November 2, 2009

Ford Hot Rod receives twin-turbo EcoBoost engine

Ford’s project car that will be shown at the upcoming SEMA Show is a custom 1934 Ford Coupe. Instead of a traditional flathead V-8, it will have the new twin-turbocharged 3.5-liter “EcoBoost” V-6. Ford is building this car along with Detroit Street Rods. Robert Smith, president of Detroit Street Rods, said that the decision to use the EcoBoost engine as the powertrain was easy to make. He called the result as “the perfect hot rod marriage of advanced technology for power and legendary automobile design.” For now, the specific figures for the 3.5-liter in this particular application are not available. However, we do know that the engine is largely stock. The biggest change lies with the turbochargers. They’re actually stock parts, but engineers had to modify the engine’s intake, exhaust, and intercooler in order to position them within the confines of the narrow engine bay. The EcoBoost motor is attached to a Tremec five-speed manual transmission, which sends power to the rear wheels. It’s rare that the motor is seen to be used in a longitudinal configuration. The only other time we’ve seen this is in the 2011 F-150.