7 Records Set by Ford
From the very beginning, Ford has set the standard for automotive excellence.
1. First Industrial Moving Assembly Line
It’s no secret that Ford created the first industrial moving assembly line for their trucks, thus simultaneously pioneering and revolutionizing the car manufacturing industry. This mechanized assembly line paved the way for mass manufacturing technique, cutting down auto production times by 10 hours and allowing Ford to produce more than 350 million cars since 1913.
2. Largest F-250 Monster Truck
Over the course of a decade, Bob Chandler of St. Louis turned his experimentation with a Ford F-250 4x4 pickup into a monstrous fleet of “Bigfoot” trucks. While experimenting in 1974, Chandler got the idea to build his F-250 bigger and bigger, eventually performing with it in local events to showcase its durability. In 1983, Chandler secured a sponsorship with Ford, and by 1986 he secured a Guinness World Record for building the largest monster truck, which stood at 15 feet, 16 inches tall and weighed a whopping 38,000 pounds.
3. Most 50-Foot Truck Pulls in an Hour While Seated
In 2011, Greg Cochran pulled a Ford pickup truck weighing 5,420 pounds while seated from a distance of 50 feet away. Amazingly, the truck was loaded with an additional 580 pounds of cargo, and he repeated this pull 17 times in just one hour.
4. Longest Parade of Ford Cars
On June 4, 2016 at an event in Sofia, Bulgaria, 1,527 Ford cars of various models and years came together to set the Guinness World Record for the largest parade of Ford cars. Prior to this organized event, the record was 829 Fords in a parade held by Mt. Hood Mustang and Fords Club in Oregon in 2014.
5. Longest Distance Walked Pulling a Pickup in Under 24 Hours
Navy Air Traffic Controller Mike McCastle pulled off an incredible feat of strength earlier this year for an important cause. McCastle trained for four hours a day to be able to pull a Ford F-150 22 miles across Death Valley, representing the number of veteran suicides that occur each day. He completed the feat in just 19 hours, and raised $8,000 for various veterans organizations.
6. F-250 Land Speed Records
Back in 2011 at the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah, Hajek Motorsports broke two land speed records with two Ford trucks—a diesel Ford F-250 and a biodiesel F-250. The regular diesel reached a speed of 171.123 mph; the biodiesel, 182 mph. The previous record was held by a Duramax diesel GMC at 166.850 mph.
7. Ford Dominates Pickup Truck Sales
Despite marketing attempts from Chevrolet to make the F-150 look inferior, Ford set a personal record recently by showing their best sales in ten years, largely driven by the F-Series. Ford more than doubled its net income for the first quarter compared to last year, earning a record operating margin of 12.9 percent. Through July of this year, F-Series have outsold Chevrolet Silverados by over 133,000 units.
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