Ford recently announced that it would be returning to the legendary Pikes Peak hillclimb with its awesome all-electric SuperVan 4.
The latest incarnation of the iconic SuperVan will compete at the 101st running of the Pikes Peak International Hillclimb (PPIHC) on Saturday June 25, just outside Colorado Springs.
Of course, previous versions of the SuperVan have been powered by everything from the V8 from the GT40 (the 1974 original) right through to a Cosworth Formula One engine (SuperVan 3 from 1994), but this one is all-electric with four electric motors, a 50kWh liquid-cooled battery and a “bespoke control system’ to pump out a properly mad 1470kW of power that will belt it to 100km/h from a standing start in under 2 seconds on its way to a claimed 320km/h.
In the latest episode of Zooming with DRIVEN, Dean talks Sam through the SuperVan's attack on Pikes Peak - which you can watch above - and how he as actually seen the SuperVan in action at Goodwood last year! You can read more about about the history of the SuperVan below. Or you can watch the entire episode of Zooming with DRIVEN here.
The first Ford Supervan (yes, with a lowercase V) made its first public appearance in 1971 at Brands Hatch in the UK. While it looked like a standard Transit (apart from the ridiculously wide track) it was basically a Transit body jammed onto a GT40 platform.
Oh, and it also packed the 298kW V8 from a GT40 as well, so had a top speed of a frankly terrifying 240km/h and suffered from extreme body lift at high speeds, due to it being about as aerodynamic as a block of flats.
Supervan 2 took the concept further in 1984 by using the chassis of a C100 Group C car wearing a fibreglass replica of a Mark 2 Transit body.
Things also got a bit more visibly belligerent too, with a massive front airdam and large side inlets. It was powered by the C100's 3.3-litre Cosworth DFL (the Group C variant of the legendary DFV V8) and had a top speed of 280kmh.
In 1994, SuperVan 3 (they added the uppercase V this time) appeared. Using Supervan 2's C100 chassis, the body was a seven-eighths scale fibreglass replica of a Mark 3 Transit, while a Cosworth HB Formula One engine replaced the DFL.
It was later revived in 2004 with a Ford-Cosworth Pro Sports 3000 V6 engine instead of the F1 engine.