Although Mike McCarthy’s officially endorsed Ford F-150 Baja 1000 race truck, powered by Ford’s 3.5-liter EcoBoost twin turbo V6 has been getting a lot of press lately, there’s another outfit that’s been diligently working on their own rig. Also competing in the Best In The Desert race series is Randy Merritt and his team Mongo Racing.

Until now, BITD race trucks were only allowed to run normally aspirated V8s or diesels, but now the series has altered the rules to allow the EcoBoost to compete, in the stock 8000 and 8100 classes, giving Merritt and crew an opportunity to jump on the new bandwagon. However, much like on main street, the EcoBoost is polarizing opinion in the race series – some loving it, others hating it.

With its diesel-like torque curve, the EcoBoost delivers the low down grunt noticeably absent from the older 4.6 and 5.4-liter V8s, but, still there are many who are skeptical about the reliability of  this new technology – part of the reason why Ford has gone to great lengths to put together an add campaign where an EcoBoost engine is flogged within an inch of its life in multiple scenarios, including use in McCarthy’s Baja Race Truck.

In the BITD series, however, Merritt notes another potential issue –  those threatened by the new engine, simply because they’ve invested a lot of time and money in tuning normally aspirated V8s. “It’s pretty exciting to do something new like this,”  he says, “but there are a lot of haters, people are scared of technology.”

Merritt has been desert racing since 1993 and was the 2006 BITD factory stock champion; though even he admits, that with technology this new, everything’s still up in the air. Nevertheless, this coming weekend at the Blue Water Desert Challenge race in Arizona, Mongo Racing is going to give it their best shot with their latest F-150. It will be interesting to see how the EcoBoost truck performs in anger.

[Source: Pickup trucks.com]

Speaking at a conference in San Francisco yesterday Ford global sales boss Jim Farley made known the American automaker’s intentions to not only make EcoBoost engines available in all Ford models, but to make them the dominant engine.

The move is part of a carefully crafted plan by Ford after internal studies showed that just last year 40 percent of buyers who left the Ford brand did so because they believed Ford vehicles had poor fuel economy.

While a premium engine offering, commanding a premium price in every vehicle its sold in, EcoBoost models will form a “substantial” portion of total vehicle sales says Farley, who believes consumers will pay for improved fuel economy with the looming threat that gas prices could spike. One such example is the new Ford Explorer, where the less powerful EcoBoost 4-cylinder model is priced above the V6.

In addition to Ford’s EcoBoost strategy, the automaker will look to expand its products offering with more different types of models, which will include the Grand C-Max MPV. In addition, Ford will soon replace the Escape with the next-generation European Kuga crossover, while the next generation Fusion may also spawn new crossovers and even a minivan.

[Source: Detroit News]

Ford has just announced it will debut a new high-performance ST version of its new Focus model at the Paris Auto Show, with global sales planned. That’s right; a hot hatch Focus we’ll actually get our hands on.

No, it’s not as extreme as the Focus RS, but with a turbocharged 2.0-liter EcoBoost 4-cylinder under the hood and a total of 247-hp, the ST is certain to be a hoot to drive. In fact, Ford claims it will offer “driving enthusiasts an intoxicating cocktail of exhilarating performance and handling accompanied by an addictive sound.” That’s quite a statement.

With dramatic styling, big wheels and “Tangerine Scream” paint, the car is technically a concept, although Ford will most certainly bring the car to market mostly unchanged, with sales of the Focus ST set for early 2012.

GALLERY: 2012 Ford Focus ST

Official release after the jump:

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Ford continues to work its marketing magic, directing focus away from the fact that its shutting-down the Mercury brand and putting the spotlight on a bright future for Lincoln. The Blue Oval has announced that by the end of this year production of Mercury models will cease, helping Ford reduce costs while and put more cash and engineering expertise into the Lincoln brand. For years Mercury has struggled, sitting half-way between the established “common-man” Ford brand and the quasi-luxury Lincoln brand. And with Lincoln still struggling to establish itself as a true luxury automaker, Mercury fell considerably short in this respect.

“Profitably growing Lincoln in North America is an important part of our One Ford plan,” said Alan Mulally, Ford president and CEO. “Our Ford brand is gaining momentum and winning customers around the world. Now, we are going to use the same laser focus to further strengthen Lincoln and deliver even more products luxury customers really want and value.”

As for the future of Lincoln, Ford has given a rather thorough look at just what to expect. First is the introduction of a new compact model, possibly inspired by the C Concept (above), but also likely based on the all-new Focus platform. Lincoln also aims to put the focus on fuel economy by offering EcoBoost engines in every model – including the next-generation Navigator full-size SUV.

In addition, Ford has announced it is developing new “Lincoln-exclusive” powertrains including an all-new V6 engine as well as new fuel-efficient transmissions (dual-clutch? 8-speed?).

Ford will look to build Lincoln into the most fuel efficient luxury brand, competing mostly with Cadillac and Lexus, delivering what it calls “fuel economy leadership” with each new model.

Official release after the jump:

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Ford has already publicly announced that it will equip future F-150 models with the company’s new EcoBoost V6 engine, but now we have word that, in the truck application, there will be an increase in torque. With twin-turbochargers and direct injection, the 3.5-liter EcoBoost V6 already makes 365-hp and 350 ft-lbs of torque.

According to Dan Kapp, Director of Advanced Powertrain, Engineering and Research at Ford, that torque number will go up, due mostly to the more efficient layout of the F-150. With added space to develop a more free-flowing exhaust setup, as well as a truck transmission that can handle serious amounts of torque, more low-end grunt will be a part of the package. Impressively, the EcoBoost motor already makes 300 ft-lbs of twist at just 1500 rpm. Kapp made the comments during a technology seminar at the Ford Advanced Technology Center in Dearborn, MI, but wouldn’t speculate on exactly what sort of numbers the EcoBoost F-150 would put out.

The EcoBoost F-150 is expected for the 2011 model year.