First Drive Review
Ford has been pasting F-150s with spit-and-stick Harley-Davidson decals for nearly a decade now, but this is the first blown Harley-Davidson F-150 since 2003, as the supercharged F-150 has traditionally been a Lightning. The absence of that truck leaves a huge (more than 5000 pounds and 380 horsepower) hole in the current Ford truck line.
Then Ford showed the supercharged FX2 Sport Extreme at SEMA last year. The truck got such a huge response from the Ford faithful that Ford execs started to look around and say, "Hey, why don't we put a supercharged V-8 into the Harley-Davidson F-150?"
The first thing we noticed about the "Fordley-Davidson" wasn't the engine. It was the color. Aren't these things supposed to be black and orange? The F-250-based Harley-Davidson truck (a separate model that is also available) is still black and orange. Black with orange pinstriping is still the default color for Harley F-150s, but the moody metallic purple on our tester is new for 2007. Orange pinstripes on a purple truck would be criminal, so silver is used instead. Smoked head- and taillamps and shiny Harley badges tie things together.
Then we noticed those big wheels. Those sure are big, we thought, 22 inches big, in fact. Wrapped in some equally big Pirelli Scorpion tires, those babies hang on for cornering speeds well beyond what the modestly bolstered seats can handle.
Pirelli can't take all the credit for the way the Harley handles. Revised dampers cut body roll and sharpen the response without destroying the ride. The result is a truck that changes direction much better than a nearly three-ton vehicle ought to, while riding almost as softly as the last Lincoln we drove. Okay, confession: The last Lincoln we drove was a Mark LT-an F-150 with a whale-baleen-like Lincoln grille-but the point is that the ride is pleasantly unchanged considering this truck's mission.
