First off, damn the rain. Damn the rain!!! We have only seen rain once in the last two months and it settled in just in time for the Drive F150 event.

Anyhow, here's my take. I drove the EB in the 'city' drive. They let you take the truck around the speedway property an down the service road, a total of 3.5 miles at 35mph or less. With the rain, there was no spirited driving. I witnessed and average of 18.1 mpg on the display, though I was mashing the throttle where I could and the speeds were too low to develop any real mpg.

I did the 'trailer tow'. What a waste. They had 5 Screw 4x4 EB hooked to 6,700 # cargo trailers. You drove through a winding course of cones in a small corner of the parking lot, max speed was probably 8 mph. Again, no chance to actually experience the truck.

The drag race was cool, albeit extremely limited due to the rain. I drove the EB and the 6.2 Harley and both broke the tires loose up to 45-50 mph in the 600' course.

 

I'm not knocking the trucks, just the limited access to the trucks in any sort of real world environment at the event. I still give props to Ford for setting up the event. A lot of work went into it and I'm sure they were bummed with the rain as much as I was.

The trucks themselves are simply awesome. Even at slow speeds, the EB is a performer. The transmission is very nice. I drove the 6.2 in manual mode in the drag race so I could take off in 2nd gear to limit wheel spin. Still broke loose after 50' or so when I really gave it throttle.

The new display screen is badass. The resolution is actually very good and it contains all sorts of useful data and gives access to driver settings. All very easily controlled with a 4-way button on the steering wheel (left thumb).

 

Sorry for the multiple posts. I'm sitting in my Ranger in the parking lot posting on my phone. Thoughts are random as I'm running back through the event.

They have an EcoDrive where you take the EB for a spin to see how high mpg you can squeeze out if it. We're not talking coasting at 35 mph. They make you drive at or near the speed limit.

Supposedly, one media lady folded the mirrors in and turned off the A/C and achieved 32.X AVERAGE mpg on the drive. The guys working the event said a lot of people were achieving high 20's and low low 30's on the drive. I never found the EcoDrive, though I didn't look real hard because I was sick and tired of the rain and I've seen enough.

2011 EB here I come!!

 

One last comment. They wouldn't allow pictures in the engine room, so no pics of the engines. It was raining hard, so I couldn't really get any pictures outside (you all know what the trucks look like already). I did snap a picture of the Limited and Platinum interiors and I took a video of me playing with the productivity screen.

I'm headed to my lakehouse now, so I won't be able to post pics or video until inget home later this weekend.

Hopefully the other Drive events across the nation will be blessed with nice weather....

 

How did the engines sound? can you hear the turbos at all? how did the exhaust sound on each? thanks

 

The 6.2 sounds great from across the parking lot. The EB sounds like any other vehicle. There is no discernable turbo whine. Inside, the 6.2 sounded like any other v8 truck. No turbo noise inside the EB. Under normal driving conditions, it's crazy quiet inside the EB. No 6.2 available to drive other than on the drag strip.

On a side note, the turbos are TINY!!!!

 

Did you get to drive any 5.0 trucks? I hate to hear about the rain that sucks man.

 

I'm sure the aftermarket will take care of that problem. lol

 

Let's see if these pictures come thru then I will make my comments.

 

Let's try this: http://s45.photobucket.com/albums/f9...view=slideshow

 

OK, I got to tow with an ecoboost twice. Once around the small obstacle course going a max of 10mph. the fuel economy said about 8.5. Also drove the ecoboost with the loaded trailer around the raceway on the access road. Here I could get it up to 50-55. Highest rpm that I saw was 2500. Seemed to pull the 6700 lbs effortlessly. I did get quite a bit of fishtailing as I speed up to 50 so either that function was turned off or didn't work well or wet road got it. Mpg average here was also about 8.5 and had about a dozen turns and two stops.

Also ran the ecoboost around the obstacle course and the drag strip. Pavement was wet but tires spin until i hit third when I finally lifted. I noticed that the fuel economy was averaging 4.5 mpg. Then I went and drove a 5.0, it's fuel economy gauge also showed about 4.5. I couldn't tell much difference in acceleration between the 5.0 or ecoboost.

They wouldn't let us tow with the 5.0 or 6.2 so I can't make a comparison.

The engineer said that the engine has a 50000 miles, 5yr warranty and is expected to last 150,000 miles both engine and turbo

 

Oh, i forgot. I could not feel any turbo lag or if it is their is is negligible. The ecoboost has one turbo for each bank of 3 cylinders.

I couldn't even see the spark plug wires so that might be a chore later- they could be hid under that plastic cover.. The oil filter is easily accessible. The engine looks huge in the engine compartment.

My only disappointment was that I couldn't get any good tests on mpg. Guess we will have to wait for the EPA results to come out in a few days. BTW, the engineer said that the fuel economy tests were done with a supercrew and with 300 lbs of weight in the truck.

They served us a hotdog, and a fried cherry pie and coke for lunch- not much lunch so I hit McDonald's after I left there for a Big Mac, fries and drink. LOL

 

I was there also. One of the first in line. Anyway, those who have seen my posts where will likely guess which powertrain I liked the best. No, it wasn't the 6.2, althought that thing is awesome. Here are my thoughts:

3.7L base:

I was first impressed by the sound while hearing others drive in in the sprint (mini drag strip). It sounded pretty good and got pretty good times. I was pleasantly surprised when I drove it. Much better than any other F-150 V-6 offering in the past.

5.0 V-8:

By far, my favorite overall. Imagine that (I already own one-Mustang). To me, it had the whole package. In the rain, none of them hooked up or got very good traction. But, the 5.0 seemed to hold a straight line better than the others and the engine/exhaust just sings. While it doesn't have the highest tow rating (10K v.s. 11.3K), it seems like the best overall pacakge for what I use trucks for. My guess is that the mileage will be very close to the EB also.

3.5 EB:

I have to admit, I was impressed by this little engine. It was kind of hard to find in the engine bay. Not much in the way of exhaust note,etc. but it does pull very well. It felt like it had a very flat torque curve, just like the charts show. No turbo whine to speak of and a little lag from a dead stop, but hardly noticeable anywhere else. It definately performs, now let's see if it lasts. I was very impressed.

6.2 V-8:

What do you say about this engine? It is huge, hauls butt and is without question the best sounding of the group. It has so much torque, I could not get it to quit spinning, even at 40+ mph. I also noticed the display said 3.5mpg during the sprint! Not accurate, but I doubt mileage is great. But that certainly is not the point of this engine.

For the most part, everything else is just like my 2010, except a few changes here and there to the instrument cluster and the new info. display. That is quite impressive and is standard on Lariats and up.

The competition:

They had a Chevy 5.3 and a Hemi Ram in the sprint area. The Chevy is a POS in just about every aspect compared to the Fords and to many extents the Ram. The brakes were down right horrible on that thing and the interior was about on par with an Aveo or Cobalt.

The Ram interior was not as bad, but not great either. The power of the Hemi was good when you got it going and sounded very good. It seemed to hesitate from a dead stop on both of my sprints down the course.

We should feel lucky to own our Fords. The 2010/2011s are far and away better than the competition. Not that I didn't already know this, but it is more enlightening when you get to jump from one to the other to compare.

 

Not picking on your report at all -


Maybe changing the spark plugs is not an issue if the engine is only going to last 150K miles........

 

Here are the free caps that they gave us

http://s45.photobucket.com/albums/f9...er/ford%20cap/