Featured Image Credit: Ford Performance

Professional rally driver Ken Block finally got the chance to hoon the Ford Mustang Mach-E. Ford Performance teamed up with RTR Vehicles to make the Ford Mustang Mach-E 1400, a version of the company’s all-electric crossover that's tuned all the way up to 11.

Ken Block took the Mustang Mach-E 1400 out on the track before its official debut in an upcoming NASCAR race. "Hoon" is slang in Australia or New Zealand for someone who deliberately drives with abandonment. It could also be used as a verb when someone drives “recklessly.” Hooning comprises activities like speeding, burnouts, doughnuts, etc..

Block was one of the few people Ford invited to test drive the Mustang Mach-E before its official unveiling event in November. At the time, the professional rally driver kept asking if he could hoon the vehicle, and he was always respectfully denied.

Recently, Ford gave Block another chance to get behind the wheel of a Mustang Mach-E, and this time he could hoon the car to his heart’s content.

Ford Performance and RTR Vehicles’ Collaboration

RTR Vehicles stated that it took at least 10,000 hours of collaboration with Ford Performance to make the Mustang Mach-E 1400. The one-of-kind Mach-E has seven motors. Three of the motors were attached at the front differential, and four were stacked at the back. The rear motors were connected to the differentials with a single driveshaft.

Ford’s NASCAR-ready EV crossover boasts 1,400 peak horsepower and about 1,500-foot-pounds of torque at the motors before differentials, said Vaughn Gittin Jr.—the founder of RTR Vehicles. In Ken Block’s video featuring the Mustang Mach-E 1400, Gittin noted that the vehicle could potentially reach up to 4,000 to 6,000-foot-pounds of torque.

He also shared that the car had a 57kWh battery placed low between the wheels for a super low center of gravity. Gittin acknowledged that the Mustang Mach-E 1400 could run for 45 minutes and might be able to handle Pikes Peak Hill Climb. Plus, it could fully charge in 45 minutes.

Ford’s Plan for the Mustang Mach-E

“Now is the perfect time to leverage electric technology, learn from it, and apply it to our lineup. Mustang Mach-E is going to be fun to drive, just like every other Mustang before it, but Mustang Mach-E 1400 is completely insane, thanks to the efforts of Ford Performance and RTR,” said Ron Heiser, the Chief Program Engineer of the Mustang Mach-E at Ford.

With the Mustang Mach-E, it does seem like Ford has accepted the era of the all-electric vehicle. The Mach-E 1400 reveals that Ford recognizes the potential full capabilities of battery electric vehicles.

However, one aspect of the vehicle seems to disregard one of the main factors—if not THE factor—that people are switching to all-electric cars. Even though it is an electric vehicle that doesn’t run on gas, the Mustang Mach-E 1400 isn’t oil-free. It uses oil in one of its two cooling systems for each of the motor sets. This is quite an interesting choice, to say the least. 

EVs are championed as eco-friendly alternatives to ICE vehicles. One of the sticking points for EV adopters would be that electric cars don’t use gas or oil.

Cars like the Mustang Mach-E 1400 show that EVs aren’t just eco-friendly, they can perform, and they are cool. But the primary purpose of EVs isn’t performance or its cool factor. Battery electric vehicles are supposed to herald a new age in the global industry, one that oil has no part in, and in that regard, the Mustang Mach-E 1400 could do better.