2016 Ford Super Duty Prototype Goes Up In Flames

When a manufacturer builds a prototype, it is meant to be tested to its limits. The engineers abuse the vehicle as much as they can, hoping to find all the little bugs and fix them before production.

It is not surprising that some of the test mules break down. However, it is unusual to see one that goes up in flames like this 2016 Ford Super Duty! 

• Also: 2015 Ford F-Series Super Duty: Back At The Top
• Also: Even More Power for the Ford F-Series Super Duty

We don’t have much information on the incident, but it looks like something went wrong during a trailer-pulling test. The driver noticed smoke coming out of the left front wheel, and barely had time to park the vehicle on the side of the road before something exploded under the hood.

About 20 minutes after the first flames ignited, the truck completely burned to the ground.

While this incident is unfortunate, we learned something from it: the 2016 Super Duty will make heavy use of aluminium, just like the F-150. If you look at the pictures, you can see that a few body panels actually melted, meaning they are made out of this lightweight metal.