Cancelled last year
for a variety of reasons, The Detroit News believes that the Blue Oval has renewed its “Hurricane”
next-generation V8 engine program. Despite high gas prices, horsepower and torque continues to sell vehicles, and Ford
has found itself falling behind competitors in the full-size SUV and pickup market. Add in healthy competition
from Nissan and Toyota’s upcoming Tundra, and there is little doubt that Ford would do well to act immediately.
At this point, it’s not clear if Ford will stay with an overhead-cam multi-valve architecture, or follow GM and
Chrysler down the pushrod 2-valve path. Either way, expect the new engine to utilize a significantly larger bore and
shorter stroke than the current 5.4L Triton (pictured).
While the primary application for the Hurricane is Ford’s full-size truck lineup, it would be surprising
if it didn’t make it into the Mustang as well, as we can expect the Camaro and Challenger to both show up packing
significantly more than the GT’s current rating of 300 HP.
Expect to see the new engine sometime around 2008.
[Source: The Detroit News]