We knew the Cash for Clunkers program wasn't perfect from the beginning, but one particular section caught our attention more than others. Section 1302, subsection (b), item 1, sub-paragraph D was its official name.
Read through the legalese and it basically allowed truck owners to trade in their clunkers for new trucks even if the newer vehicle didn't necessarily get better mileage than the trade in.
Green Car Advisor has been following the issue for some time and weighed in on the matter today with a detailed analysis. It didn't exactly call the program a total farce, but it does make you wonder how well it was planned.
GCA: Clunker Program Allowed Some Truck Trades for Less Efficient Vehicles
Categories: Auto Industry,Trucks
You can't find this stuff just anywhere.
Categories: SEMA Show,Trucks,Tuners and Modifications
Have you seen the shocks on the Ford SVT Raptor? They are about as big and burly as you're every going to find on a stock truck. But compared to the other race applications built by Fox Racing Shox, the Raptor's units are comparatively tiny. They're on the right, Fox's 4.4 external bypass dampers are on the left.
Ford SVT Raptor XT Debuts at SEMA
Categories: Ford,SEMA Show,Trucks,Tuners and Modifications
We only know three things about this truck.
1) It's kickass.
2) It's called Training Day -- Vigilante.
3) It was built by Outlaw Customs in Henderson, Colorado.
Categories: Diesels,SEMA Show,Trucks,Tuners and Modifications
Actually, the idea of a truck-turned-BBQ is nothing new to SEMA. The thought of it coming by way of Toyota is the hard-to-figure part.
Blame it on the Tundra's plant in San Antonio, or the desperate need to "connect" with full-size truck buyers. Either way, it's a bit disturbing.
Just look at that center console. And those door handles, yikes. The rest is almost prototypical SEMA show truck -- big-screen television, on board barbecue, giant chrome wheels with mud tires.
Categories: Concept Vehicles,SEMA Show,Toyota,Trucks,Tuners and Modifications
Last year, Toyota turned a Tundra regular cab, short bed into a badass street sleeper. It made sense given that the Tundra has a pretty mean 5.7-liter V8 and the body configuration would make it the lightest Tundra possible.
This year, they took a Tundra (quite possibly the same one) and dressed it up as a hot rod, complete with flames and moon wheel caps. There's also a tuck-and-rolled bench seat and a wood paneled cargo bed.
We liked the first one better, much better.
Categories: SEMA Show,Toyota,Trucks,Tuners and Modifications
Before there was Grave Digger, Speed Channel and Monster Jam, there was Bigfoot, the original Monster Truck. And now it has become an American legend, perhaps the world's most reconizable truck.
Thirty-five years ago (that's 1974) Bob Chandler built the first of several dozen Bigfoots and as the sign says on the next page, it first hit the SEMA Show in 1977 and it crushed its first car in 1981.
To celebrate the truck's birthday, Chandler and the boys have even reskinned a modern Bigfoot to look like the original (pictured). In other words they built the monster truck version of the restomod. And this year the two Bigfoots are displayed at SEMA side-by-side. Pretty cool.
Oh, and just in case you're too young to remember, those are two Predator carburetors sticking through Bigfoot's hood. And it just didn't get any cooler than that in the mid-1970s.
Continue reading Bigfoot Sighting At SEMA.
Categories: Classic Cars,Ford,SEMA Show,Trucks,Tuners and Modifications
Carbon fiber usually isn't something you bother with on a pickup truck. Saving a little weight up top probably isn't going to make up for the giant steel ladder frame hung underneath; at least that's what people with budgets tend to think.
The Silverado ZR2 wasn't constructed with that mentality, though, as it features a carbon-fiber hood, fenders, rocker extensions and tailgate. There's also a 550-horsepower supercharged LS V8 under the hood and 35-inch tires at each corner. None of that is cheap, either. Then again, that's what concepts are all about. Just don't expect to see many of these parts in a dealer catalog any time soon.
Categories: Chevrolet,SEMA Show,Trucks,Tuners and Modifications
When we submitted a Ford F-150 SVT Raptor to our usual battery of track tests as well as a whole new selection of dusty, jumping antics, we came away with only one major complaint about this life-size Tonka truck: "Needs more power..."
Indeed, the 310-hp 5.4-liter V8 that's standard fitment in the Raptor has always been the weak sauce of the pickup truck upgrade motors. So beginning at the end of this year, Raptor buyers will be able to order an engine to match the Raptor's outrageous looks. The 6.2-liter V8 bring 101 more horsepower and 69 more pound-feet of torque than the 5.4-liter engine. The 6.2-liter Raptor starts at $41,995 including destination and delivery charges.
The 6.2-liter gas motor will also find it's way into the engine bay of the 2011 Ford Super Duty, although Ford says it might not exactly the same amount of power as it does in the Raptor.
Categories: Ford,SEMA Show,Trucks
Little pop quiz for y'all.
The most expensive Ford Motor Company product is?
Wrong. FoMoCo already unloaded Aston Martin. The most expensive factory-built Ford is the FR (Ford Racing) Raptor XT truck that the company is to unveil today Tuesday at the SEMA show in Las Vegas. Well okay, so we exaggerate. The truck doesn't actually cost $100,000. It's only $99,950.
The XT is a turn-key professional pre-runner that Ford says is "nearly" the same truck it raced at the 2008 Tecate SCORE Baja 1000.This means you get a 6.2-liter V8 which at "about 500 hp," makes almost 100 more hp than the production 6.2-liter will make. A 6-speed automatic, electronically selectable 4x4 with 4.56 gear sets and front and rear e-lockers. A revised suspension (compared to even the pretty extreme standard Raptor) brings 15 inches of front wheel travel and 18 inches of rear travel. The XT also comes with a chromoly roll cage, extra skid plates, tubular front and rear bumpers and sweet lighting.
And, although the XT will not be street legal, it comes standard with air conditioning and power windows. Ford Racing will make only 50 XTs. If you want something a little more, you know, less hugely expensive and more useful, try a street legal Raptor with the new 6.2-liter motor.
Please note that the photo above is the race truck from Baja, not a production XT.
Categories: Ford,Motorsports,SEMA Show,Trucks,Tuners and Modifications
OK, it's not quite the pickup truck many people think Scion should build, but it's a start. Designed and built by Advanced Design Fabricators, this former xB received a rather extensive exterior chop to go along with a mild engine build and the requisite interior revamp/audio upgrade.
The engine received new cams, valves, valve springs, headers and ported heads. And since you might need a little extra punch when the bed fills up with...uh something, they threw in a Nitrous dual stage fogger system. A heavy-duty TRD clutch sends the power to a limited slip differential up front which should have its hands full with the 20-inch wheels and Toyo Proxes tires.
2009 SEMA Show
Categories: Concept Vehicles,SEMA Show,Scion,Trucks,Tuners and Modifications
Jonathan Ward of Icon 4x4 is the Dr. Frankenstein of off-road vehicles, a guy who has made a nice life out of finding old Toyota FJs and Land Cruisers and then rebuilding them into something that you can not only drive off-road again but even drive every day as transportation. And now he has turned his attention to another legendary off-road vehicle, the Willys CJ3.
With the Icon CJ3B, Ward and his engineering team have attempted to create the world's most perfect CJ3. Few of the bits actually come from a CJ3, and yet the final product has the same purity of purpose that still makes people remember the flat-fender Willys with admiration.
Continue reading Icon CJ3B: Dr. Frankenstein Builds a Jeep.
Categories: Auto Shows,Trucks,Tuners and Modifications
If you haven't heard the lowdown on the 2010 Ford F-150 SVT Raptor yet, take a few minutes to read Road Test Editor Josh Jacquot's report. You see, Josh is more of a car guy that a truck guy, but after a week in the Raptor he was sold. It's almost too much fun for a factory truck, yet you can order one from your local Ford dealer just like a Taurus.
And although Josh goes through the various upgrades added to make the Raptor, if you want a technical discussion of the new suspension design we have that too courtesy of Dan Edmunds, our Director of Vehicle Testing and a former OEM chassis engineer.
Full Test: 2010 Ford F-150 SVT Raptor
Suspension Walkaround: 2010 Ford F-150 SVT Raptor
Categories: Ford,Trucks
When it rains it pours eh? Toyota knows how that feels these days. The company is losing money for the first time in, well, ever and it just issued it's biggest recall ever.
Now the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) is looking into a new Toyota problem. Actually, it's kind of an old problem of sorts. Turns out a few customers have reported issues with rust on the frame of their 2000 and 2001 Tundra pickups. It's causing their spare tires to fall out and that's not good when it's slung underneath the bed.
So far the number of complaints has been pretty small, about 15 in total, but Toyota had a similar issue with its Tacoma compact truck which forced the company to buy back affected trucks. It's not quite a full blown investigation yet, but stay tuned, there's more to come.
NHTSA
Categories: Auto Industry,Toyota,Trucks
Ford's new F-150 SVT Raptor made an appearance in my driveway recently, and it created a bit of a stir. My tweenage daughters wouldn't ride in it. My wife didn't want any of her friends to catch her in the thing. They complained of the "kindergarten mess" graphics flanking the sides of it (an option, I told them) and compared it to a real-life sandbox toy (that part's right.)
On the other hand, the Metal Mulisha dude with the flat-billed hat down the street thought it was uber-cool. So do I. Who cares if it broke my floor jack? (To be fair, my aging floor jack popped a seal on the previous walkaround. The Raptor's burliness merely finished it off.)
Anyway, let's get to it...
Continue reading 2010 Ford F-150 SVT Raptor: Suspension Walkaround.
Categories: Car Tech,Ford,Suspension Walkarounds,Trucks
