Ford's Supervan

Now that’s a van … Ford will show off its brand new Supervan at 2022 Goodwood Festival of Speed. Four electric motors, 2000 bhp, four wheel drive and a sub two-second 0-62mph acceleration time.

The striking, all-electric demonstrator vehicle was developed in secret by Ford Performance and electrified rally and racing specialists STARD in Austria, with exterior design by the Ford Design team in Cologne, Germany.

Ford’s first SuperVan was the 1971 Ford GT40 engined Transit Mk.1. SuperVan 2 had a glassfibre version of the Transit Mk.2 body draped over a monocoque and 582 bhp Cosworth V8 Ford C100 racing car. This vehicle was later reborn as the facelifted Transit Mk.3 SuperVan 3 powered by a 641 bhp Cosworth HB engine Formula 1 car.

The new van’s motorsport-spec construction marries the E-Transit Custom floorpan with a steel spaceframe and lightweight composite body panels including a sculpted front splitter, side skirts and rear diffuser while the rear design’s cutaways and dorsal fin flow into the rear wing to generate downforce.

The racing influence continues under the skin with unequal-length double wishbone suspension at each corner. Motorsport-grade front and rear subframes, uprights, and brakes deliver the braking and steering capability to match the enormous straight-line go.

The Ford Pro Electric SuperVan’s interior includes a full roll cage and FIA racing seats as well as a large SYNC touchscreen taken directly from Ford’s production vehicles. 

The touchscreen also enables control of the selectable drive modes that tailor the Electric SuperVan’s torque maps, regenerative braking and control responses to suit different driving scenarios:

· Road – for “normal” driving

· Track – for balancing speed and cornering on track with racing slicks

· Drag – for maximum acceleration on drag strips

· Drift – for spectacular drifting, agility demonstrations and snow driving

· Rally – for optimum performance on tarmac and gravel rally stages

Further performance fine-tuning is delivered by an electronics package that includes traction control, launch control, a pit-lane speed limiter and three-stage regenerative braking to return energy to the battery.

A Tyre Cleaning Mode can deliver exhilarating driving displays; this new feature fully brakes one axle while spinning the other, creating impressive burnouts on the front or rear axles that help clean and warm the tyres before performance runs.

Romain Dumas will drive the van at Goodwood. He has set outright records at the Goodwood and Pikes Peak hillclimbs, and also holds the electric lap record at the Nordschleife, where he won four Nürburgring 24 Hours races. Dumas’ diverse experience also includes the 24 Hours of Le Mans’ outright distance record, an FIA World Endurance Championship title, and a class victory at the Rallye Monte Carlo.

Now please remind me. How do you contact Santa Claus if you don’t have a chimney?