It may be a cliché that middle-aged engineers, saddled with a midlife crisis and perhaps a divorce, return to their youth for inspiration. But Ford Motor Co.’s Power Stroke designers did just that. They found solace in the Scorpions, the German rock band that sang “Rock You Like a Hurricane,” while Ford battled with a longtime engine supplier. The project’s code word, Scorpion, stuck as the unofficial name of Ford’s new 6.7-liter diesel in its F-Series work trucks.
Clichés aside, the 2011 Power Stroke, slated for production soon in Chihuahua, Mexico, leaves behind the head-banging 1980s with refined combustion that delivers less noise pollution than other diesels working on the jobsite.