Watch out, Dodge, Ford has a V10

03/15/96

The infamous Dodge 400 HP V-10 motor started life very quietly several years ago as Dodge Ram truck power plant and rapidly found its way into the engine room of the sleek $60,000 Dodge Viper and worldwide auto racing. Vipers will be racing in the 12 hours of Sebring this coming weekend. Ford, with a global automotive high performance motorsports program larger than Dodge could ever fathom, has now snuck a V-10 motor into their big Econoline and Club Wagon vehicles which will debut next September. Dubbed the Triton, Ford's V-10 is a 6.8 liter motor with 265 HP and 405 pounds-feet of torque at 4000 rpm. The Triton is in Ford's family of "modular" engines of which we will be hearing a lot of in coming months.

The V-10 configuration is no stranger to Ford, as their Formula One motors are tens. Making exotic three liter, 700 HP V-10s at Abingdon-On-Thames, however, is a far cry from the Dearborn, Michigan truck version.

This is how Dodge built a 1996 muscle car--from their V-10 truck mill--so we'll keep an eye on Ford and its many "independent" purveyors of speed such as Saleen to see if some rodder may get their mitts on a "Triton ten" and go for broke, horsepower-wise. It could show up in a 1997 IMSA/WSC car in '97 to do battle with the Riley & Scott Olds Aurora and million dollar Ferraris.

Bill Maloney -- The Auto Channel