F-550 will carry your Ford Mustang to the track while you ride in luxury.
While flipping through the listings for Ford trucks on the Mecum website, we came across this incredible 2008 F-550. With a roomy, leather-clad cabin, this truck is every Ford racer’s dream hauler, allowing them to cruise to the track in comfort and style with an old-school NHRA approach.
The Old NHRA Look
While most modern day drag racing teams have massive, elaborate towing rigs with fancy enclosed trailers protecting their cars and tools from the elements, drivers in the early era of the NHRA hauled their cars to the track in modified heavy duty trucks. In most cases, whichever brand of race car you drove would lead to the brand of truck that carried your car to the track, so Ford racers in the 1960s would have used a rollback-style Ford truck.
Nowadays, a professional racer wouldn’t consider an open-style hauler, but open trailers are still a common site at the local drag strip. In most cases, Mustang racers will use a Ford truck to pull the trailer, but this 2008 F-550 with the custom drive-on hauling deck would serve as the perfect “tow vehicle” to show off the car on the way to the drag strip.
A Custom Hauler
This F-550has been fitted with a huge drive-on hauling area and it appears as though a set of ramps tucked in the rear end are used to get vehicles on and off, as opposed to a rollback that tilts down to the ground. The hauling area is huge, so you could fit an average car on desk with plenty of room for a golf cart or some other pit vehicle. In fact, there is enough room that you could probably install a toolbox of some sort on the front portion while still having room for a car and a pit vehicle.
In addition to having plenty of hauling space, this 2008 Ford F-550 has a loaded interior with plush leather seats and a premium infotainment system, so a Mustang racer could take the car to the track in comfort. Also, with a 6.0-liter PowerStroke diesel, this rig has plenty of power to carry everything loaded up out back.
If you have a Ford race car and want to haul it with a big, slick Ford truck, this could be your next big purchase.
"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.
"Ten years ago, I left the accounting world to become a full-time automotive writer and I am living proof that if you love what you do, you will never “work” a day in your life," adds Rall, who has clocked in time as an auto mechanic, longtime drag racer and now automotive journalist who contributes to nearly a dozen popular auto websites dedicated to fellow enthusiasts.
"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.
