F1K

1,000 Reasons to Hold on Tight

“F1K” is the perfect name for this 1972 F-100. How did we come up with it? Well, it’s an F-100 with 1,000 horsepower. Easy enough!

John Jinnings is a lifelong enthusiast of building custom vehicles. He has personally owned 156 automobiles, with about 25 of them being magazine worthy. John found a rust-free ’72 Ford F-100 on eBay in California, and once the deal was done and the truck shipped to Indiana, they stripped it down to just what was needed and sold everything else off.

With the power the motor was going to have, a stock frame would twist like a pretzel, so John went with a Roadster Shop Fast Track chassis with a 4-inch drop built in. He used a 4-link on the rear with Penske shocks to hold the rear end in place, and tubular A-arms with Corvette spindles and Penske shocks up front. For stopping on a dime, Baer six-piston disc brakes on all four corners with 14-inch pistons up front and 13-inch pistons on the rear do the trick. To finish off the rolling chassis, 19×9 Forgeline rims up front and 20×12 Forgeline rims at the rear keep “F1K” planted to the ground with sticky Michelin rubber.

For all the power, John contacted Hellion Power Systems to see if the crew there could produce a 1,000-horsepower motor. They assured him they could! Starting with a 2014 Ford 5.0L Coyote engine, they had Holbrook Racing Engines machine the engine to spec, and Brenspeed then assembled every part. To achieve 1,000 horsepower, Hellion added a pair of 62mm twin turbos with an air-to-air-intercooler, boost controller, a Sniper throttle body intake, and a Turbonetics Performance wastegate with pop-off valves. Three-inch powdercoated Hellion headers dump exhaust gases out through the Magnaflow mufflers that exit in front of the rear wheels.

Because everything is clean and simple, they decided to hide the master cylinder under the dash and fit custom panels with false compartments on the inner fenders to hold the boost controller on one side and PCM on the other. Keeping with the clean theme, all hoses and wires were routed under the Sniper intake, and custom engine covers were made to hide the coil packs. To help keep the massive engine cool, there’s a 25×19 custom radiator from Ace Radiator. A 4R70W 4-speed automatic transmission with a billet converter and a 2,800 stall was then bolted on to the backside of the engine. A Speedway aluminum 9-inch rear-end running 3:70 gears with posi-traction and Strange axles allow all 1,000 horses to hook to the ground.

The body mods were minimal with the perfect touches. The bed floor was raised 4 inches, tailgate smoothed and corners were radiused. Completing the bed, wheel tubs were added to accept the much wider tires. Four slots were cut into the front bumper and grille to allow extra air into the intercooler, and the wheels, grille and door handles were powdercoated gray. The body was then smoothed to perfection and painted Axalta BMW Tanzanite blue.

To complete the build, Steve Holcomb of Pro Auto Customs in Knoxville, Tennessee, covered everything inside in light gray and blue leather. The smoothed dash has a ’64 Falcon gauge panel outfitted with Dakota Digital gauges. An Ididit column holds the Flaming River steering wheel, and backlit blue LED lights were placed in the headliner, door panels, and under the dash.

John would like to thank his family, Steve Holcomb for the interior, Kevin Riffey for bodywork, Kyle Mullenhour for the paintwork, and Rusty Iron Restorations.