Old Smokey F1 & The Quest For 200mph

Old Smokey F1 & The Quest For 200mph

As a car enthusiast and mechanic, I’m always on the lookout for cars that I can fix, flip, or build. One day, while browsing through Craigslist, I came across an ad for an old Ford F1 truck. My Matco tool rep had told me about the same truck a few weeks earlier, so I decided to take a look with my good friend and apprentice, Pierre.

When we arrived at the location, the truck was sitting outside an old Volkswagen repair shop. The bed was full of rusty nails, and there was even what was left of a dead cat or raccoon in the cab. Despite its appearance, I noticed that the body was very solid, and I managed to negotiate a price of $225, down from the $300 asking price.

Initially, I had no plans for the truck. I knew that after a good power washing, I could put it back up on Craigslist and flip it for a couple of grand. However, as the truck sat in my storage lot for a few months, it started to grow on me. I was particularly drawn to the old brush-painted patina and the ’48-’52 F1 ‘Monkey Face’ truck design.

Eventually, I decided that I would build a simple shop truck with some modern suspension and drivetrain, keeping the body just as it was. I chose a 12-valve Cummins turbo-diesel from a 1994 Dodge truck for its great mileage and legendary reliability. I also picked a Mustang 2 style suspension for its ease of installation and overall good performance.

The build was progressing as planned until I decided that the stock 160hp engine needed to be upgraded. This led to the proverbial ‘snowball effect’ with each modification leading to another. The bigger turbo led to bigger injectors, the bigger injectors led to twin turbos, and twin turbos caused the engine to be set back halfway into the firewall to help weight distribution and to make room for them.

To complement the engine modifications, the brakes were upgraded to Wilwood units, and later scrapped for even bigger ones, along with an entirely new one-off tubular front suspension. The truck was now a well-engineered road racer that reflected all the things my shop was capable of.

In the end, the Ford was essentially built twice, with the only things carried over being the twin Industrial Injection turbochargers and the body sheet metal. The chassis was scrapped in favor of a NASCAR-style tube frame, and a more modern Cummins power plant from a 2005 Freightliner was fitted.

The unique nature of the truck caught the attention of many people, and it went viral on Instagram, Facebook, and other sites. About 20 companies that I work with at my shop got involved in sponsoring high-end parts for it.

This led to the truck being one of the most media-covered vehicles at SEMA 2016. However, my quest for the truck was not yet over. I now planned to get Smokey into the record books by being the first diesel-powered pickup to achieve 200mph in the measured mile.

To achieve this, I installed a new engine and transmission with a twin turbo system and a nitrous oxide injection. The truck’s rear axle was also swapped out for a much stronger unit from a Peterbilt truck. The truck was then taken to the Bonneville Salt Flats for testing and tuning.

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