Oh, that’s just $1 million worth of vehicles driving up those ramps
SEMA is one of the few places where a Lamborghini can struggle to stand out. Park one next to a row of wildly modified trucks, and it might barely earn a second glance. Elevation Off Grid (EOG) had a different idea, and frankly, it leverages the Lamborghini in question as more of a prop since the company is really selling the Super Duty trucks it’s sitting on. So yeah, this is a sincerely impressive display for multiple reasons.
First, let’s break this down a touch. Elevation Off Grid is known for building custom heavy-duty trucks that don’t sacrifice their heavy-duty capabilities. EOG created a similar display at SEMA in the past, but with the Lamborghini thrown in the mix, the company estimates there’s close to a $1 million elevated 11 feet off the Las Vegas Convention Center floor. Watching the setup of this display is what caught our eye in the first place. Some companies may have used some type of crane or forklift, but once the Lamborghini was loaded onto the Super Duty, ramps were used to drive the car-hauling rig atop the other two shot trucks. We can only imagine that a very confident — and well-insured — driver was piloting that white Ford Super Duty.
The SEMA reality
Sure, the stunt is cool, and again, it’ll get the brand noticed, but there’s a somewhat sad detail why this SEMA display caught our eye in the first place. For all the cool stuff we see at SEMA each year, plenty of the cars, trucks, and SUVs in question are little more than fancy rollers. Some don’t even have complete powertrains, while others are running Bluetooth driveshafts. While they might look cool, they’re often held together with hopes and dreams, and the flashier vehicles tend to be vaporware cars that you could only wish to life.
That’s a big reason why this demo from EOG is so cool. Any company can talk a big game, but some actually back their products up. Very few can build a truck that shows off so many concurrent skills in one relatively simple-looking display. Driving a pickup onto ramps is ordinarily unremarkable. Doing it with a Lamborghini behind the cab and two other trucks waiting underneath adds a little more pressure to the job. This all could’ve been viral for a very different reason.
Then consider what the other two trucks are doing — they’re supporting the weight of a custom Super Duty and a Lamborghini. Yes, they’re sharing the load, but we’re still talking about several thousand pounds on each pickup. The company boasts that its beds are capable of supporting 10,000 pounds (4,536 kg), so in theory, each is doing relatively light work. EOG then uses LiquidSpring Smart Suspension components to keep either truck from squatting under the load. It’s a very clever way to make a very clear point.
