I just read this horrible incident and wanted to comment on some things in regards to the vehicle in this case.
I for the last 10 years of my life was in the Automotive Performance Industry specifically turbocharging and diesel performance.
The first thing I would like to address is that plumes of smoke oriented from diesel engines are typically a sign of unburned fuel leaving the combustion phase. In relation of upgraded diesel performance, this is a sign that the vehicle has increased fuel and air intake and an excess amount of fuel has been introduced via tuning into the combustion phase to keep the Engine and EGT temperatures lower to prevent engine and turbine damage.
From what I gather the accused was driving a 3rd generation F-250 (P473), which utilizes a 6.7L single turbo (GT32) with CP4 pumpsâŚ
If this is the correct application, then in order to make this truck âroll coalâ and if the statement is correct that; it is the parents truck intended for farm usage means that heavy modifications were most likely performed to the truck. If you are to truly black out a group of cyclist from coal rolling (which is a sign of what we call a Hot Tune up) then for a 6.7L truck the most likely modifications that will be needed are 2CPX Fuel pumpâs, a 66-68mm turbocharger, exhaust, tuning software and slight engine modification. These are all fairly straight forward to be performed by a home mechanic.
These upgrades are bread and butter for these trucks and range in the $10-$12k range and are most common for farm/work vehicles looking for better fuel economy and performance as those aspects are drastically increased. A well tuned truck of this type can produce in the 600rwhp and 1000ft/tq range.
Why is this important?
This is important because I feel that this accident happened from neglect of the accused controlling their said vehicle in an attempt to intimidate the cyclist.
A P473 chassis with an unloaded/non-weighted load and under a highly modified situation with full torque capacity will break rear traction causing the vehicle to need immediate correction to regain proper forward control. It is to my belief that while the intimidation occurred the vehicle became sideways causing a head collision with riders next or somewhat ahead of the vehicle.
The short version is - a young kid in a hot truck that lacked proper control skills for the modifications performed, attempted to intimidate cyclist and lost control causing the accident we are discussing.
I hope my brief technical overview of the vehicle is somewhat helpful or at least educational to others.
**Edit - I forgot to mention that in process of these modifications all traction control and most OEM initiated (EGT, DEF etc) systems are disabled/abandoned allowing the user to control/command the application to do as they see fit.
