Last weekend, I drove what might now be the dumbest, best vehicle I’ve ever driven. Don’t worry, that’s a compliment because the truck was so powerful and so absurd that you just couldn’t wipe the ear-to-ear smile off of my face. I’m talking about the Ford F-150 FP700. This is a truck with a 5.0-liter Coyote V8 wearing a 3.0-liter Whipple supercharger as a hat. It’s a 700 horsepower, 590 lb-ft torque middle finger to sanity, sensibility, tires, and your wallet and you won’t even care because you’ll be having so much fun.
I got to spend the weekend in Detroit with a Ford F-150 equipped with Ford Performance’s FP700 package. While there, I more or less used the truck how I would if it were mine. I took it on a scenic drive, ventured over to my favorite places in Detroit and, along the way, the accelerator pedal randomly and mysteriously found itself embedded into the floor while the driver of the truck laughed like a Bond villain. Over the weekend, I managed to put over 500 miles on the F-150 with about $160 going into the tank to keep the beast fed. My only disappointment was not being able to take it home with me.
What Is It?
https://www.instagram.com/p/CukHXTEPZrF/
Before I continue, I should probably explain what this truck even is. Officially, it started life as a 2022 Ford F-150 XLT 4×2 with a short bed, a 122-inch wheelbase, and a regular cab. Out of the factory, this was already a pretty cool truck. Despite the photos you’ve seen thus far, the truck isn’t black, but Ford’s extremely dark Antimatter Blue. Inside is cloth upholstery featuring a bench and just enough technology for a modern truck. There’s an infotainment system, but it isn’t huge. Only a portion of the instrument cluster is digital, and the truck isn’t loaded down with a ton of features.
In fact, in order to get the FP700 kit, you can’t even have features like an eight-foot bed or Ford’s ProPower Onboard generator setup. This truck is a middle finger to sensibility, after all. I love the fact that Ford Performance started this particular build off with an XLT. Ford says that the Ford Performance FP700 package can be applied to 2021 and newer F-150 XL, XLT, Lariat, and Platinum trim levels, in either 4×2 or 4×4 configurations.
The package can also be applied to Regular cab, SuperCab, or SuperCrew setups. I adore the fact that this press truck is an XLT and not the most luxurious truck Ford Performance could find.
The FP700 package itself is pretty subtle. For $12,350, you get:
- 3.0L Whipple Supercharger
- Producing 700 hp and 590 lb-ft of torque
- 22″ x 9.5″ Black Machined Wheels
- Unique Ford Performance Bedside Graphics
- Black F-150 Tailgate Lettering
- Ford Performance Fender Vents
- Gloss Black Front Grille
- Black Lug Nuts
- Rear Lowering Kit
- Rocker Panel Aero Delete Kit
- Ford Performance Front Floor Mats
As we said before, the FP700 package comes in a Black Edition and a Bronze Edition. Both packages are the same price and the difference between the two is in the color of the accessories. Bronze Edition trucks get bronze wheels, bronze badging, and a bronze stripe. Since the FP700 package is a kit that’s applied to an existing truck, you can have it installed by an ASE-certified technician or by Ford. Assuming it’s installed by either of those two parties, you get a three-year, 36,000-mile warranty. Oh, and it’s CARB-compliant, 50-state legal, and Canada-legal, which is impressive because at idle, this truck darn near violates noise laws.
The most important part of the FP700 package is the top item, that beautiful 3.0-liter Whipple supercharger. It’s applied to a 5.0-liter Coyote V8 (a requirement), which normally makes a healthy 400 HP and 410 lb-ft torque. That supercharger kicks the power up to a monstrous 700 HP and 590 lb-ft torque.
Now, you’ll notice that the list of mods is pretty short there. You’re not getting bigger brakes, a sporty suspension, or grippy tires. It’s basically all power with some subtle styling changes. To my eye, the FP700 looks like a work truck that someone took to their local truck customizer and blacked out. A Ram 1500 TRX looks like it wants to rip your face off when it’s just sitting still. This looks like the vehicle your handyman might drive.
Again, that’s not a diss, but a compliment. I took the truck down Woodward Ave, where it blended with traffic right until I opened the taps on that glorious engine. If it weren’t for the thunderous sound of the exhaust I might have heard the sounds of necks snapping. Nobody expected the work truck to sound like that, or to take off with the same kind of alacrity as a literbike. Many people complimented the truck and a few individuals seemed impressed enough to ask for my phone number.
I Am Speed
My journey with this truck started the moment I left Qwik Park next to Detroit Metro Airport.
Now, I will readily admit that this is the most powerful vehicle I’ve ever driven. Prior to this truck, the most superlatively-powered vehicle I’d piloted was a 2022 Acura NSX Type S, a 600 HP swan song to a famed supercar. The Acura, despite the power figure, drove like a regular car. If you never worked the pedal past its first bit of travel, you would never know the power harnessed within. And even when I did stomp on the NSX’s accelerator, the power came hard and quick, with enough force to take my breath away. Yet, it all felt super controllable.
On the other hand, the F-150 FP700 is the exact opposite. If the truck is in Sport mode, even a light jab at the throttle results in an angered grunt from the engine and perhaps a squeal from already overwhelmed rear tires. In Sport mode, the accelerator pedal also works somewhat like a toggle switch. Either you’re accelerating or you’re soon about to be. Unlike the Acura, the FP700 is uncivilized, like your in-laws after a few too many White Claws.
Oh yeah, my test truck was equipped with General Grabber HTS all-season tires. It should be noted that tires are not a part of the package, so these were the tires Ford chose for this press vehicle. At least to me, they have no more grip than regular all-season tires, which means they’re totally unprepared to have so much power sent through them. Pulling out of Qwik Park, that meant the FP700 roared down the road with the tires letting off a squeek, and I wasn’t even trying to peel out! This pretty much set the tone for the whole weekend.
Once I got moving, I pointed the truck toward Detroit, which required merging onto I-94. Now, I like to do highway ramp acceleration tests. I need to get to 70 mph anyway, so I might as well make it fun. So, I did what I normally would do and welded my size 10 shoe into the floor. First, the truck lit up the tires, shifting from first, to second, to third gear while doing it. Then I backed off just enough for the Grabbers to live up to their name, resulting in my head ramming into the headrest, the front end lifting, and the digital speedometer rising so fast that it had to skip numbers to keep up.
Zero mph to 60 mph? Yeah, I have no idea, but the truck is stupid, silly, and profoundly absurdly fast. Do you know how I said riding my Triumph Rocket III feels like being strapped to a Saturn V? The FP700 is that experience but cranked up to 11 and oh yeah, it’s a freaking truck. It even drives like it wants to take off like a Cessna. Drop the hammer and the suspension immediately submits. Suddenly, your hood is pointed toward the sky and you’re just holding on. Meanwhile, the truck is putting out a soundtrack reminiscent of a NASCAR stock car. There’s certainly supercharger whine and I love it, but once you get to about 2,000 RPM or so all you hear is a pissed-off V8 and tires screaming in pain.
Adding to the experience is what you feel through the seat. I’m not entirely sure what was going on behind my head, but the vibrations and kicks felt by the butt dyno were epic. It felt almost as if the suspension or maybe the tires struggled to keep composure under the onslaught of power.
Speaking of power, it’s ferocious at any speed. This truck has a ten-speed automatic transmission and, in the FP700, it gets a good workout. Punch it and it’ll drop a few gears as the engine does its best impression of the 1883 eruption of Krakatoa. No matter what speed you start out at, you’re going to find yourself at the end of the speedometer before you even catch your breath. On Saturday, I took a day trip to the Tawas Point Lighthouse and found myself behind a camper doing 65 mph in a 75 mph zone.
I toggled the truck into Sport mode then gave it hell. I’m not sure what I expected, but the speedometer needle basically just warped past 75 mph. It’s as if the truck entered a wormhole and emerged on the other side of an old Terry travel trailer.
Oops, All Horsepower!
I’m not sure in how many other ways I could describe the brutal speed of this truck. I have no idea if it’s faster than the Acura NSX is, but I don’t care, because the fun factor is off the charts. Though, based on my experience, the FP700 would blow the doors off of most of the muscle cars and tuner cars I saw on Woodward last Friday night. And it’ll do it without your neighbor whining to the HOA about how you own a garish truck.
One thing I can tell you is that the truck stops accelerating at around a limited 120 mph. It’s not like you’d want it to go much faster, because as I said before, the package does not include better brakes, a sporty suspension, or sticky tires.
In fact, the Generals wrapped around those tall wheels are only T-rated tires, which means they’re good to about 118 mph. If you were crazy enough to take this truck to a track (and please do) you will probably be all over the place as the engine overpowers everything else.
Now, I want to clarify that those comments aren’t meant to denigrate the truck. In fact, the fact that it’s basically all power is part of its character. It’s an old-school hot rod build where the tuner dumps everything into power. It’s like a Kawasaki H2 Mach IV where all it does is speed. And if you turn off traction control and try to leave a car meet in this truck, you may make TikTok, so don’t do that. I can tell you that if you want it to, this truck will scream out of a parking lot, taking up multiple lanes in a huge drift with smoke and making enough rumble to set off sensitive car alarms.
Not Totally Uncivilized
Based on what I’ve said thus far, I wouldn’t blame you for assuming this truck is so uncivilized to the point of being undrivable. I’m happy to say that’s not the case. Put it in Normal mode or Eco mode and the truck will drive like any other F-150 you’re used to. In the 200 miles one-way I drove to the Tawas Point Lighthouse, I kept it around the speed limit and averaged 25 mpg. I got 21 mpg on the way back down, where I played with the throttle a bit more. Compare that to the 11 mpg I got when I was testing the truck’s acceleration.
Aside from the short list of changes, the rest of the truck is a bone-stock F-150. In fact, there’s nothing on the truck that even screams 700 HP or the addition of a supercharger. The best you get is badging that says “Ford Performance,” but that doesn’t really tell you anything. The integration of the supercharger is remarkable in how little else it changes about the vehicle. The gauges are the same, the interior badging is largely the same. Heck, the sticker on the fuel door is exactly the same as stock.
Normally, here’s where I’d prattle on about features, but that’s less important here because the FP700 package can be applied to either a base stripped-out XL with rubber floors or a luxurious Lariat. That said, the XLT did have neat features like adaptive cruise control, lane-keep assist, and a 360-camera system. None of the electronics were impacted by the supercharging. The cruise control even accelerated gradually.
Of course, I had to test out the stereo. I imagine for most people, the engine is all of the soundtrack you’ll need, but I tried it out, anyway. Well? It’s a stereo with Android Auto and Apple CarPlay. Honestly, it’s not the worst factory stereo and not the best either. I would rate it as one of the car stereos of all time. Using my favorite test track, the theme to Star Trek: Voyager, quieter instruments were heard, but not as clearly as I would hear on a higher-end system. But, lower-end systems drown out those instruments entirely. So, yeah, it has a stereo and it does stereo things.
Final Thoughts
This truck wasn’t just the most powerful vehicle I’ve ever driven, but some of the most fun I’ve ever had on four wheels. Silly vehicles make me laugh and cry tears of joy and this was no exception. But, more than that, this truck made my heart flutter, not unlike the feeling many of us probably felt when we had a crush in high school. Wait, do I have a crush on a truck?
Further, I’ve been driving big four-door trucks for so long that I’ve forgotten the honest simplicity of a regular cab truck. I don’t even care that it has a short bed. I love the look and the compact size (compared to how large these Fords can get) is something you don’t really see anymore.
As Thomas said in the article we introduced this truck with, the Ford F-150 FP700 is basically a rebirth of the old Ford F-150 SVT Lightning, only subtle and not able to be called a Lightning. Like the old Lightning, this truck has few, if any, practical reasons to exist. The 5.0 Coyote by itself is a fine engine and a regular F-150 is a great truck on its own. In this era where EVs are readying themselves for world domination, a thirsty supercharged V8 also seems a bit like an anachronism.
Part of what makes the FP700 so great to me is that it’s a colossal middle finger to logic and sensibilities. If you use the throttle hard enough, your wallet will hate you, too. That said, this power does come with an affordable price tag. You can pick up a new Ford F-150 XL for $37,925. Tack on the FP700 package and you’re in for $50,275. That’s quite a lot cheaper than the least expensive Dodge Challenger Hellcat, which is the $72,290 Hellcat Jailbreak.
I hope our story with this monster doesn’t end here. For some reason, I’d love to see how this stacks up against a Tesla Plaid and a Ram 1500 TRX. Maybe one day. I’m so happy this truck exists. It’s all about fun, power, and speed, everything else be damned. The Ford F-150 FP700 is a proper hot rod, a land-based cruise missile, and probably the most American thing you’ll drive for a very long time.
(Photography by Andi Hedrick unless otherwise noted.)
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I wanna be like, “oh this is just the dumbest thing ever” but at only 50 grand it’s kinda hard to hate.
I’ve never driven anything with that much power either, but I have plugged a Telecaster into a full Marshall stack. I imagine dropping the hammer on this truck is the automotive equivalent of banging out power chords on that setup. Probably produces the same giggle, too.
A telecaster into a marshall stack with all the knobs set to stun has to be the equivalent to this hoonery
Reminds me of opening scene on Back To The Future
I’ll add based on your Threads teaser the other day it looks like this thing can pull decent MPG if you keep your foot out of it. 25.7mpg with 700 horsepower in a a truck sounds great.
Part of me is like, just sell me the supercharger only! No need for fancy badging, stickers, tires, brakes, lowering kit, or anything like that. The 5.0l is already a great engine, and trust me, there is no good reason that a F-150 needs to be doing more then 119 mph and still only be in 5th gear. The 700 hp supercharger addition is completely ridiculous and insane, BUT…. it is 100% insurable. To your insurance agent, it is just an standard spec XL, XLT, Lariat or Platinum. 🙂
Somehow though the transmission needs to know you’ve added 300 hp, otherwise I see durability issues.
Ford doesn’t think so, and they’re willing to back that sentiment with their own warranty dollars.
Read the article and the specifications of the package. Zero changes to the transmission, and remains under original new vehicle warranty.
This is awesome, I want one bad. Love that they’re offering this on basically any configuration, reg cab short bed is the purest hot rod way to order it but I’d have to order one in a slightly more practical form, my heart says Ext Cab/6.5,2wd, my head says Crew Cab/6.5/4×4, blue with the Bronze package, I’m %100 ok with an XLT, but just imagine having this with a Platinum. Either way would make for one hell of good time. Hopefully there’s more than a few people who want the same thing because there’s no way in hell I can afford one anytime soon.
This truck makes the 1st gen Viper look responsible.
“Either you’re accelerating or you’re soon about to be.”
Outstanding.
As soon as you sign the buying agreement, you should just lose your license. It would save state some time. I would rake up six driving infractions by the time I left the parking lot. Finally the perfect new car for an empty parking lot.
Oh yay more stupidly overpowered dumpster fire trucks….
(Btw I said predicted this was another article on the raptor r, so I’m taking half a point for the meme truck stuff.)
Still not going to get excited about trucks, but that’s not Mercedes fault…
I guess it’s less offensively stupid than the dinos? Maybe? Idk anymore.
I just want to know how many YEE-HAWs were uttered during the testing of this truck.
C’mon Mercedes. You can tell us. You’re among friends here. No one will judge you. In fact, more than a few of us will be envious.
More than five? I bet it was more than five…
I believe I uttered something like that with basically every stab of the skinny pedal! 🙂
I think “Raise Hell, and Praise Dale” would also be acceptable.
Hell yeah! Finally a properly cheapish badass high HP fun Rig! I may actually ride over the the stealership and see how much they mark this monster up too….been 20 years since I bought a new vehicle!
It’s just an F150 with a dealer installed package, so I doubt there’s much of a mark up since there’s no allocation limit.
Ah, but we’ll see what story the friendly neighborhood dealer (your advocate, remember!) tells you when you want to buy one. Ignore the 50 trucks sitting on the lot behind me, these are tough to come by still! $5k market adjustment at minimum!
Nobody says it has to be the same dealer installing the kit as the one selling you the truck.
For factory orders, yeah, that could get pricey. Although there are still a lot of Ford dealers. If suburban Ford dealer doesn’t play, take a scenic drive to a rural dealer.
How much does it lower the truck?
zero.
Great review and a really cool truck. It always makes me smile to see the pics in Detroit.
But I’m a Negative Nancy, so I am mostly thinking about asshole truck bros driving these like assholes.
Well, the only possible way to make this thing handle even worse would be to put a lift kit on it. So that will definitely happen.
Not just lift kits (though I assume almost all of these will be lifted–maybe a few folks will make the better choice and lower it), but they’ll be stancing this and making it the absolute worst thing it can be.
Give it the Carolina Squat, and you will make it properly dangerous to everyone else on the road. Especially cyclists and pedestrians.
Hey, at least the Carolina Squat will balance the front/rear weight bias a bit!
So you know, at least you won’t break rear traction when you run the pedestrians over.
Just because truck bros may ruin it, doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be made. All the Bro-dozering and stancing of these trucks will make the factory fresh unmodified versions a commodity in a few years. Also I am a fan of sleepers, and as far as F-150s go this is a sleeper.
I doubt the brodozer crowd will spend the money because the visual add-ons are way too subtle. All that supercharger cash could be spent on fake Raptor grilles, LEDs, ugly wheels, etc
It isn’t a diesel. Most of the Brodozer crowd wouldn’t be caught dead in a [insulting term here] *gas* truck. They view diesel as some kind of required masculine symbol.
Ford management: So we haven’t seen any news about Mustang’s leaving Cars & Coffee and injuring pedestrians lately. This is unacceptable! We DEMAND that Ford vehicles be harder to control, inappropriately used more often, and that they injure more bystanders!
Ford engineer: How about a 700HP engine in an extremely front weight biased vehicle, stock all-season tires, and stock truck suspension? Oh, and we’ll use a bench seat, so that if the driver even consider’s doing anything other than a burnout, like turning, then not only will the vehicle spin out due to no rear weight, bad tires, and a top-heavy design, but the driver will also fall out of their seat and lose control of the steering. We promise that it’s the worst handling and most dangerous vehicle we could possibly design.
Ford management: Do it!!!
It’s like killing pedestrians is the goal at this point.
When you know that most pedestrians killed are considered tragic accidents (and often blamed, if possible), rather than considering the driver to be negligent or malicious, it really does seem like the point is to stop people from being pedestrians, whether through fear or by force.
Ford: Killing Pedestrians is Job 1.
You should probably be adding all those things. It sounds like a lot of fun, but a recipe for disaster when someone doesn’t understand what they’re getting into. A heavy pickup with a lot of power can do a lot of damage if someone loses control. I know I’m a buzzkill, but we see enough accidents from people losing control of vehicles.
It’s cool to see power without all the flair, though.
A friend keeps talking about wanting a Syclone but at ok $70k for most examples on the market, its a bit out of reach and practicality, but THIS is what I have been telling him to look for the past month. thanks for the video and detailed review hopefully it pushes my friend to buy it!
He can do an S-10/LS swap and if he can do his own labor and build a junkyard motor, easy 400hp and under 10 grand.
I loved the pictures, specially the ones driving down on Woodward Ave. I hope you had a nice trip while visiting Detroit
1. This is the super secret story you’ve been hinting at for a week? A review of something you already reported on? Not disappointed in the article, the hinting just seems unjustified.
2. Tops out at 120? You mean artificially limited to 120, right? This thing is not horsepower limited to 120 and it shouldn’t be gearing limited that slow either.
Sounds like a really cool machine.
Yes, it is. We’re basically the first people to drive it and it’s the most read new product story on the site, so my assumption is people would be excited.
All the super secret hinting made everybody think that there was an embargo for an unveiling. V10omous was theorizing about what brand new vehicle could be coming out. So it’s a little surprising that there’s no unveiling, it’s something that we already knew existed.
We are excited, and the review was great, but definitely not brand new drop we expected.
May not be obvious, Rust Buckets, but people are REALLY excited about the FP700. To get an (almost) exclusive first drive? It’s a big deal!
But yeah, if you’re not into it, then yeah I get your response.
Would you like more rust bucket content? Because that I can do!
No, it is exciting, and a big deal.
Rust bucket content, though……… yeah, more is better.
I have been dropping the ball on that. I owe you more, and I will make sure it happens!
You got any rust buckets of your own that you’re nursing?
Ah, good point! Sorry, in my excitement I did not clarify. Yes, it’s definitely not limited by horsepower, but by the governor and those tires. I do wonder what its theoretical top speed would be given decent rubber and maybe cleaner aero.
Stock aero, probably around 165 mph, assuming it had the gearing for it. I didn’t bother looking up the gear ratios on the transmission to do a thorough calculation.
Are supertrucks back for good?
Man, if GM would do this – and they easily could, they already have all the stuff – it would be seriously tempting. It’s really cool to see this almost COPO – level stuff in this day and age.
This made me grin, just reading about it. Sounds like a blast.
So basically a Ford Lightning if the marketing gurus hadn’t hi-jacked that name for the eV pickup
They really should call it Thunder and license AC/DC’s Thunderstruck for a marketing campaign.
Not a Ford fan here but yes this ⬆️⬆️⬆️
Seems like Ford’s cannily figured out a way to offer the uplevel Dodge Challenger experience in a format acceptable to a larger buying audience.
As others have remarked, it’s cool to see a regular cab F-150 for this. Just wish it had a better name…why not resurrect Thunderbolt? This is definitely a spiritual successor to that beast…”F-150 Thunderbolt” has a nice ring to it.
Then they could also offer some sort of F150 Lightning upgrade package called Lightfoot. “Thunderbolt and Lightfoot”, Clint Eastwood approved.
It seems almost irresponsible to sell this with those T rated tires.
They are giving you new rims, and it’s not as if XLT trucks are reusing 22″ tires, so they are speccing those from somewhere. Why not give it a little bit of grip, especially if you’re selling it in 2wd form?
Maybe they reuse the 22″ tires from the Limited models? But that seems like a ridiculous justification.
Seems to give it an unintentional retro flair, a throwback to the musclecar era of too skinny tires and inadequate brakes coupled with moar power.
With the obvious caveat that most of those old muscle cars made about 250 net hp.
I’m still confused by the logistics of offering a wheel package that doesn’t include tires though. Do you need to bring your own tires to the dealer to have them installed with the rest of the package? Why wouldn’t Ford offer a couple options at least?
Well 250(extremely torquey and usually low geared) horsepower doesn’t mean the skinny tires weren’t grossly inadequate back in the day.
I agree, but I also think there’s a difference between a low 12 second truck (guessing) getting loose in the back end, and a 14-15 second car doing the same. Stability control, etc will obviously help to an extent, but I find it hard to accept this is a factory supported package.
I mean, I drive a 640 hp car (that weighs at least 1000 lb less) on 355 mm wide steamroller R-compound tires and I sometimes wish for more grip.
“With the obvious caveat that most of those old muscle cars made about 250 net hp.”
So true, but slap on some headers, weighted distributor and a carb and that number would jump to 400.
It’s hilarious how choked they were from the factory.
I think the main reason they don’t automatically include the tires is that this is supposedly a kit for both 2wd and 4wd trucks. Most Ford dealers sell and stock tires, so yeah the dealer would be happy to supply them. They may not like you bringing in your own tires but they would probably just put the wheels in the bed for you to do with what you will.
If I had a friend that bought a cheap F150 and threw a 3L supercharger on it, and nothing else, I’d probably call him/her an idiot. High performance all-seasons and performance pads should be part of the package at minimum. If these actually sold in high numbers, I’d probably see them littered around guardrails and off ramps every time it rained.
That is going to be quite a sight.
I rode my trike to a friend’s house 2 weeks ago and there was enough debris from wrecked cars along the way that if you were to re-assemble al of the molecules of the wrecked items, you could build half of another car.
I really want to see this powerplant in a fuel efficient mid-engine streamliner two-thirds the size and 1,200+ lbs lighter than a Mustang. It could be a halo car for economy, and also totally stupid when you step on it.
Seems to me to be an invitation to buy this on a Friday, melt those tires over the weekend, and put something better on first thing Monday morning.
I would be more intrigued if Ford also offered a big brake package. Then it would be off to a tuner to get rid of that 120 mph limiter. The Ram SRT-10 did 153 mph, time to break that record.
I’m not a Ford guy, but I love this so much. I agree there’s just something about a regular cab truck, the proportions look so RIGHT with a shortbed. I’m also partial to them was that my first vehicle was a reg cab pickup (squarebody Chevy shortbed).
For 12,XXX this pkg seems like a bargain.
I want a regular cab, long bed, vinyl floor, bench seat, steel-wheel F-150 with this kit.
This is the way
I think there’s at least a few articles possible for “how to spec and aftermarket an FP700 F-150”. I’m am genuinely curious what folks are gonna do with these.
You forgot the truck nuts.
And the corrosion.