The 2014 Ford F-150 Tremor Is The EcoBoost Sport Truck Of Your Dreams

I was invited to Dearborn, Michigan on Ford’s dime to drive the 2014 Ford Fiesta and the 2014 Fusion Energi, but we’re already off topic. We are here to talk about trucks!  While I was in Dearborn, Ford presented us with the 2014 Ford F-150 Tremor, an EcoBoost, performance-centric pickup that is everything right-and-wrong about the auto industry..  This is a truck that takes me back…

While I was in college and in my early twenties I drove a 1997 GMC Sierra short bed pickup.  It wasn’t crazy powerful, but it was a lot of fun.  The only reason I traded it in was because I was entering a time in my life where I had acquired more money than I’d ever had before and buying a new vehicle made total sense.  Sidenote: It didn’t make any sense, but you have to make mistakes to learn from them…

 

This 2014 F-150 Tremor reminds me of what my truck could have become.  The Tremor is the natural evolution of a short bed pickup, powered by a 3.5 liter twin-turbo V6 offering 365 horsepower and 420 ft-lbs of torque, all of it available from 1,700 RPMs. The Tremor is derived from the FX4 models.  Instead of a SuperCab or Super Crew Cab, the Tremor will be a regular cab with a short bed, to cut down on weight, the enemy of performance and fuel economy.  Somehow Ford managed to achieve 22 mpg on the highway despite that crazy amount of horsepower.  My ’97 made 200 horsepower and 244 ft-lbs. of torque, and got MAYBE 17 mpg on the highway, downhill, with a tailwind.

The Ford F-150 Tremor is also going to come with an electronic locking launch-optimized rear axle to aid in traction during takeoff, and it will need all the help it can get. I’ve driven the twin turbo V6 for a couple weeks in a Super Crew XLT F-150.  This engine makes even full size pickups feel light.  The torque is so readily available that the truck always feels like it’s ready to go. So imagine what it will be able to do in a lighter, shorter truck.

The target audience is teenage boys and guys still in their lower 20’s people with no need for a practical pickup and would rather burn rubber than haul wood.  That’s why the FX2 Tremor will only come as a two wheel drive truck, and is also the reason why this truck will be so fun.

There’s a lot to like about the Tremor.  As a dad though, I’m out.  I need that back seat for the child safety seats. I guess I’ll just have to settle for the Ford SVT Raptor instead, though that truck gets just 11 mpg in the city and 16 on the highway. Compared to that, the Tremor seems downright fuel efficient.

Now if only we could get a new Ford Ranger with a 2.0 liter EcoBoost engine, then everything would be right in the world.