Ford shows off the 2011 F-Series line-up at the Texas State Fair.
The Ford F-150 pickup truck, segment sales leader for 33 consecutive years, will go into 2011 with an array of new front-end designs, a total of four brand-new engines, the industry’s first across-the-board use of a 6-speed automatic transmission, and more electronic content than ever before.
The new powertrain line-up leads the company’s release of 60 new engine and transmission packages around the world by 2013, half of them in North America.
TheDetroitBureau.com got a first look at the new 2011 F-Series during a trip to the annual Texas State Fair.
Ford said the venerable 4.6-liter SOHC V8 and the 5.4-liter DOHC V8 engines, long familiar to F-Series owners, have been retired, and the aged Cologne 4.0-liter V6 engine will be put out to pasture, as well, when the Ranger goes out of production.
The F-Series powertrain line-up goes through a major re-make, including this new 3.7-liter V6.
But there are some notable alternatives moving into the F-Series lineup, including a 3.7-liter V6 previously only available in the Ford Mustang, now rated at 302 horsepower and 278 foot-pounds of torque, and made standard in the F-150 XL, STX and XLT versions.
Next up, a 3.5-liter twin-turbocharged direct-injection EcoBoost V6, a design borrowed from the front- and all-wheel-drive Ford Flex, Taurus SHO, and Lincoln MKT. Here it’s been turned 90 degrees to drive the rear wheels and rated at 365 horsepower and 420 foot-pounds of torque.
The 2011 Ford F-150 Raptor will now be offered with a SuperCrew option.
The truck version of the 3.5 EcoBoost engine shares almost nothing with the front-drive version, with a new block, new camshafts with twin independent variable cam timing on both intake and exhaust cams, smaller Borg-Warner turbos, a Nippondenso fuel system instead of the Bosch system, new cylinder heads with tumble ports, new cast iron exhaust manifolds in place of stainless steel headers for added durability, a new cam chain drive, new oil pan, new water pump, larger intercooler and intake manifold. In effect, a whole new engine with the same name and horsepower rating as the front-drive engine but little in common.
For 2011 Ford gives the Harley-Davidson F-150 a 6.2-liter V8 shared with the Raptor.
The first of two new V8 engines is the 5.0-liter V8 engine borrowed from the new Mustang, modified for low-torque truck use and rated at 360 horsepower and 380 foot-pounds.
The gigantic twin-plug 6.2-liter V8 — previously available in the Super Duty pickups and now available in the SVT Raptor, the new Lariat Limited, and the Harley-Davidson pickup — will be rated at 411 horsepower and 434 foot-pounds of torque.
With these new engines and the 6-speed automatic, Ford is claiming horsepower, torque, fuel economy and towing capacity leadership against Chevrolet, GMC, Dodge and Toyota full-size pickups.
Ford said that all of their new pickups will use speed-sensitive electric rack-and-pinion power steering to save fuel. The system has built-in electronics, a motor, and software that automatically counteract crowned-road and rough-road steering behavior.
In addition to new front-end styling for each of the models, there will be a completely new instrument package with ice blue needles that includes a 4.2-inch LCD information screen that shows all kinds of vehicle operating information. Ford’s Sync electronics package and the Work Solutions package for fleet operators will be optional on nearly all models.
The complete lineup includes XL, STX, XLT, XLT Custom, the FX2 and FX4 off-roaders, Lariat, Lariat Limited, Platinum, King Ranch, and Harley-Davidson, the broadest model lineup in the history of the F-series with the widest variety of powertrains ever offered, in regular cab, SuperCab and SuperCrew body styles, 25 of which are available in 4-wheel drive.
Unfortunately, at press time, neither the 2011 pricing structure for the new trucks nor the EPA mileage numbers were made available by Ford Motor Company.