Autoblog

Mike Levine from PickupTruck.com is our go-to guy for truck news. His brain is like the bed of a Ford F-450 filled with the esoteric details of heavy duty diesel pickups and 3/4-ton gassers. Plus, he's from the old school of automotive journalism and has made a successful transition to the web, which means his reporting is always knowledgeable and balanced despite it being delivered digitally. When Levine told us he was planning on doing a comprehensive comparo of today's heavy duty pickups, however, we were unprepared for the depth of the final product.

The 2007 PickupTruck.com Heavy Duty Shootout pits six HD pickups from Chevy/GMC, Ford and Dodge against each other on a totally level and unbiased playing field. Levine went so far as to hire a third-party company to perform all of the instrumented testing to remove any trace of subjectivity in the results. The players are three gas-powered 3/4-ton pickups including the 2007 Dodge Ram 2500 SLT Quad Cab 4x4, 2008 Ford F-250 FX4 Super Duty Crew Cab 4x4 and 2007 GMC Sierra 2500 HD SLE Crew Cab 4x4, and three diesel-powered one-ton pickups including the 2007 Chevrolet Silverado 3500 LT Crew Cab 4x4, 2007 Dodge Ram 3500 SLT Quad Cab 4x4 and 2008 Ford F-350 King Ranch Super Duty Crew Cab 4x4. Ford also threw in a 2008 Ford F-450 Lariat Super Duty Crew Cab 4x4 so that Levine and his team could attempt to prove how powerful this big rig really is.

We've just finished reading Part 1 and 2 of the three-part series, which includes an extremely knowledgeable and fact-filled introduction as well as the first battery of tests, including a "squat" test and 1/4-mile performance runs. Each part may appear like a lot to read, but we flew threw it faster than an unloaded GMC Sierra 2500 through the quarter mile.

Check out Part 1 here and click here for Part 2. The final installment should be out sometime this week, and we'll be eager to find out definitively which of these pickups outperformed its competitors in PickupTruck.com's battle royale of heavy duty trucks.

[Source: PickupTruck.com]

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This bit of news will no doubt be a big badge of honor for the few owners there are out there of the Volkswagen Touareg V10 TDI. VW is hoping the number of Touareg TDI owners will grow, and demonstrated the diesel ute's mighty pulling power recently in a press event that pitted it against the standing weight of a Boeing 747. The Touareg was "lightly modified" with the addition of 7,030 kg (15,498 lbs.) of ballast weight (!) and the fitment of the 4.56 axle from Touareg V8 model. The latter mod turned out to be unnecessary since the driver, Uew Krieghoff, performed the stunt in the low ratio, second gear. Other than that, the Touareg was also fitted with a special tow adapter to marry the two vehicles together and wore outer body panels that made it look the same as the next gen Touareg being launched early next year. The engine, transmission, suspension, tires and brakes were all stock.

The plane used for the stunt was a decommissioned Boeing 747-200 that weighs 155 tons. VW had initially calculated the Touareg could successfully pull 200 tons, and had even done a dry run with a 190-ton Boeing 747-400. Unfortunately, the only plane that could be acquired for the PR stunt was this one that is usually used as a giant prop in films. Apparently it didn't put up much of a fight, as the Touareg towed the jet 150 meters at 5 mph before slowing itself and the plane to a stop with its stock brakes. Impressive indeed, and we think the Touareg V10 TDI has laid down the gauntlet for our domestic heavy haulers. Let's see what crazy objects the Ford Super-Duty, Chevy Silverado HD and Dodge Ram 3500 can tug around.

Follow the jump for more pics of the Touareg's towing exploits.

[Source: VW]