Clean flareside F-150 from the late 1970s has a tow rope, but it barely breaks a sweat in crossing the pit!
Today’s “Freewheel Burning Friday” video comes to us from the YouTube channel of Dylan Morris and it features a sixth-generation Ford F-150 participating in a one-truck mud race. There are few details (and what we are told is actually wrong), but this appears to be a timed run through a purpose-built mud track. There is a crude safety barrier in front of rows of spectators on both sides, and this classic F-150 puts on a great show for the big crowd.
The video title claims that this is a “97 Custom Ford F-150” in a mud race, but this truck clearly isn’t from 1997. Perhaps the person meant to say “77,” but based on the front end, this truck is from 1978 or 1979. It is a flareside truck with a short cab, four-wheel-drive and what sounds like a big V8.
In those two model years, buyers could equip their four-wheel-drive F-150 pickups with a 351-cubic-inch V8 or a 400-cubic-inch V8, neither of which were incredibly powerful. Fortunately, this truck is louder than a stock truck, so we would bet that the engine has been modified or replaced altogether. It also appears to sit a little higher than stock, with aftermarket wheels and tires.
However, this sixth-generation Ford F-150 doesn’t appear to be massively modified, looking like a clean, road-friendly truck.
The Mud Run
The video begins with the lengthy process of hooking up the emergency tow rope and easing out into the mud. Starting on the dry dirt would allow the trucks to get too much momentum, so they start in the deep mud.
On “Go!,” the engine of the F-150 roars and all four tires begin to sling mud into the air. The truck covers the first portion of the deep, muddy track in a hurry, and while it loses some momentum on the top end of the run, it makes it back to dry land without much hesitation.
We don’t know how this truck did in the grand scheme of the competition, but it put together a really impressive run for such a mild-looking Ford F-150 from the late 1970s.
Crank up your speakers and enjoy!
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"Before I was old enough to walk, my dad was taking me to various types of racing events, from local drag racing to the Daytona 500," says Patrick Rall, a lifetime automotive expert, diehard Dodge fan, and respected auto journalist for over 10 years. "He owned a repair shop and had a variety of performance cars when I was young, but by the time I was 16, he was ready to build me my first drag car – a 1983 Dodge Mirada that ran low 12s. I spent 10 years traveling around the country, racing with my dad by my side. While we live in different areas of the country, my dad still drag races at 80 years old in the car that he built when I was 16 while I race other vehicles, including my 2017 Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat and my 1972 Dodge Demon 340.
"Although I went to college for accounting, my time in my dad’s shop growing up allowed me the knowledge to spend time working as a mechanic before getting my accounting degree, at which point I worked in the office of a dealership group. While I was working in the accounting world, I continued racing and taking pictures of cars at the track. Over time, I began showing off those pictures online and that led to my writing.
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"I love covering the automotive industry and everything involved with the job. I was fortunate to turn my love of the automotive world into a hobby that led to an exciting career, with my past of working as a mechanic and as an accountant in the automotive world provides me with a unique perspective of the industry.
"My experience drag racing for more than 20 years coupled with a newfound interest in road racing over the past decade allows me to push performance cars to their limit, while my role as a horse stable manager gives me vast experience towing and hauling with all of the newest trucks on the market today.
