Ford Super Chief: A Low Gas Milage Under the Locomotive’s Look

Ford Super Chief is a massive concept pickup based on long-box F-250 crew cab. The Super Chief specifications will use a supercharged V-10 engine (dubbed Triflex V10) that runs on gasoline, E85 ethanol blend, or hydrogen. It isn’t often that a concept vehicle takes its design inspiration from a locomotive, and for good reason.

Because the Super Chief offers these choices drivers have the comfort of knowing they can still find fuel as the ethanol and hydrogen infrastructures are developing. In a tri-flex fueling system owners can utilize any or all of these fueling options using the same engine and only the flip of a switch. The transfer between fueling options is performed through a switching system onboard and can be accomplished while the Ford Chief is running.

Ford Super Chief 2012 Back View - Photos 2

The aerodynamic profile of the 2012 Ford Super Chief looks like it would yield gas mileage in the gallons-per-mile range. Good thing there’s a trick engine under the hood of the Super Chief, the Triflex V10 which can guzzle regular gas at a furious rate, sip on 85-percent ethanol if that’s what’s around, or run solely on hydrogen while reducing emissions by 99 percent. Not only are emissions close to nil in hydrogen mode, but a supercharger kicks in to provide up to 400 pound-feet of torque.

The tri-flex fueling system on the Super Chief allows operators to go 500 miles between total refueling with the supercharger activated only when using the hydrogen fueling system. While the tri-flex system is a new concept at Super Chief, the automaker has been committed to providing customers with a flex-fueling system in their F-150 models for 2005 and 2006 that allows either unleaded or E85 to be used in the same tank.

The Ford Super Chief 2012 also offers a couple of different innovative safety features worth mentioning. The Super Chief’s Beltminder technology lets the driver know when any of the passenger seat belts are unbuckled, even in the rear seat. With the retractable ottomans in back, the Super Chief rear seat wouldn’t be a bad place to sit back, relax and try to figure out where you’re going to get your next tank of hydrogen. With the Super Chief, Ford seems to be saying, if big trucks and big S.U.V.’s aren’t selling, maybe it’s time to switch to really big trucks and see if they will sell.

Ford Super Chief’s Competitors

According to J Mays, group vice president of global design and Ford’s Chief creative officer, the Super Chief concept builds on the Ford Truck reputation and truck leadership commitment the company has had for 25 years in this country. “As you know we have the F-150, F-250, F-350, 450 and within that 250, 350, range we have something called the SuperDuty, that is a big workhorse. What we’re trying to do is look at the ceiling of how luxurious can we go, with a truck.

We think that there is a market, absolutely there for something that is far more high-end that still has a Ford Blue-Oval on it so the natural extension of the F-250 Super Duty would be to create a Ford Super Chief.” This Ford Super Chief is clearly a concept vehicle, but if it should indeed reach production as a competitor to the Dodge Ram Power Wagon, the Ford Super Chief price tag would be nearly $50,000. With trendy suicide doors, rear-seat powered ottomans, and a walnut and aluminum cargo bed and cab floor in the Ford Super Chief, we’re certainly not going to miss the HUMMER.