5 Things You Didn’t Know About the F-150’s History
Time to learn little F-150 history! You may know the usual slogan of, “America’s best selling truck for 39 consecutive years,” but there’s more to it. So sit down, and get ready to learn some cool (and perhaps useless) facts about the best damn pickup truck in the world.
The Ford Bigfoot was the first monster truck ever!
The original Bigfoot prototype was based on a Ford F-250, but ever since finalizing the first-ever monster truck, the iconic Bigfoot has been an F-150 through-and-through.
Bigfoot became the visual description of a monster truck when it became the first factory truck to break into the scene in the mid-eighties. The big blue truck populated bedroom walls with promotional posters and all kinds of swag handed out at events and appearances.
All Ford trucks were 4×2 until 1959
Believe it or not, 4×4 wasn’t really a thing until almost 1960! Can you imagine going to the dealer and not having the option to get a 4×4 F-150?
According to Thrillist, trucks prior to 1959 had to be sent to a third-party company to be outfitted with 4×4 drivetrains. I totally didn’t know this, did you?
The current truck hierarchy was established in 1953
Sure, the very first Ford pickup may date back to the mid-1920’s, but the current F-150, F-250 and F-350 didn’t officially roll out to the public until 1953. From that moment on, the public really caught-on to the simple numeric formula of “the bigger the number the bigger the truck.” Pure genius!
Once upon a time, you could get a camper-ready Ford from the factory
Towing packages, trailering packages and heavy duty suspensions are kind of a modern thing, as those luxuries and custom specifications didn’t really exist back in the day.
That being said, the personal camper boom of the sixties prompted Ford to offer camper-ready suspensions on their F trucks. It was a simple tweak to offer stiffer and heavy duty suspensions, but it paid off big time in sales figures.
Ferrari once named a car, the Ferrari F150
Given the fact that I’m a big-time F1 fan, I remember this one clearly. Ferrari wanted to celebrate their 50 years of involvement in the sport, and therefore named their F1 racing car, the F150.
Once Ferrari made the announcement public, Ford quickly got lawyers involved and sent a kind letter to Maranello. Ferrari kindly (supposedly) understood, and renamed it the F150 Italia. Funny enough, this was one of the worst performing racing cars they ever engineered!
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Story via: [Thrillist]
Photos via: [Ford]