Academy Award-winning director and winemaker Francis Ford Coppola is among those eager to buy the Ford F-150 Lightning when it arrives this spring. And not just because he got his middle name in honor of Henry Ford.
The 82-year-old has expressed interest in ordering 10 electric trucks for his Inglenook Winery in Rutherford, Calif., which hosted a Ford Pro media program last week.
The automaker has capped its reservation list at 200,000, but in a fireside chat with Ford Pro CEO Ted Cannis, Coppola copped to having an inside connection.
He said he sent a note to Alexandra Ford English, a board member for the automaker and fifth-generation member of the founding family.
He told her how Henry Ford, her great-great-grandfather, would often listen to his father, a flautist with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, during rehearsals. Coppola explained that his middle name comes from being born at Detroit’s Henry Ford Hospital and from his father’s affiliation with the automaker.
He also explained that most of Inglenook’s fleet of work vehicles — except for its pickups — already is electric.
“I was making a little hint, I wasn’t asking for them,” Coppola said. “I was making a hint that I was very excited about it. I thought the F-150 Lightning design was ingenious.”
Source: https://www.autonews.com/retail/francis-ford-coppola-eager-buy-ford-f-150-lightning