Ford has gifted Ken Block with this insane, high-powered pick-up from a bygone era. The souped up ‘Hoonitruck’ is a 1977 F-150 with the heart of a Ford GT. Its 3.5L V6 Ecoboost engine puts out 900 horsepower.
That power was possible thanks to the Hoonitruck’s custom made aluminium intake manifold – the largest 3D printed metal part in any car ever made.
The project was a global effort. Ford Performance engineers in the U.S. ran engine performance simulations and collaborated with a team of Ford research engineers based in Europe to design the part and conduct structural analysis. Working together with RWTH Aachen’s Digital Additive Production Institute, in Germany, the team built the intricate aluminium intake manifold that supplies air from the turbochargers to the engine’s cylinders.
3D printing, or additive manufacturing, is a tool-less production method that offers design flexibility to help reduce weight and improve performance. The technology is usually used in the development of Ford vehicles to help test and refine different design approaches and to create tools more quickly and cost-effectively. For the manifold for the “Hoonitruck” – that weighs almost 6 kilogrammes – the whole build process took five days.
