SpeedTV's DRIVEN: "Raptor Romps, Muscles Desert Trail"

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BigJ

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Cool writeup, although I cannot at all agree with his statement that "[The suspension] does wiggle and jiggle pretty much all the time, except on the smoothest surfaces, and requires constant attention on the highway to keep it tracking within its lane."

http://automotive.speedtv.com/article/driven-raptor-romps-muscles-desert-trail/

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DRIVEN: Raptor Romps, Muscles Desert Trail

Written by: Bob Golfen
Date: 08/05/2010 - 06:47 PM
Location: Phoenix, Az. The rocky desert trail where we often go to test off-road vehicles got pretty badly washed out earlier this year when storms raged through central Arizona. But that’s OK; it just makes it all the more challenging.
This time, I was driving one of the supreme beasts of high-performance desert running, the Ford SVT Raptor, a purpose-built F-150 4X4 pickup transformed into a mighty truck that could challenge the Baja 1000.
Actually, the SVT team did run the rugged Baja race last year with a Raptor in essentially stock form. They finished an impressive third against specially prepped competition machines.
But this gnarly Arizona trail is a whole different trip. It’s not about how fast you get through the daunting terrain as much as if you get through it. The trail starts off with a long, steep uphill grade over loose rocks and deep ruts, and it gets worse from there. Deeply eroded washes, large boulders, a narrow granite passageway, tight turns, prickly vegetation, all kinds of rugged stuff as the trail climbs up and over a high desert ridge.
Some of the 4X4s that we bring out here struggle with this trail, but the brawny Raptor shrugged off everything we threw at it. At one point when we thought we were hung up in a dry riverbed paved with good-sized boulders, I pulled the selector knob to lock the rear differential, and we came charging out.
The only issue, Raptor was a full-size, extra-wide truck on a fairly narrow trail. With its extreme suspension modifications and fender flares, Raptor is eight inches wider than a stock F-150, which comes out to about 86 inches, the approximate width of a military Humvee.
Which looks pretty damn cool, but it was often a tight squeeze through the narrower parts of the trail while trying to avoid paint-scraping branches and rock walls. Negotiating some of the sharper turns required white-knuckle concentration. We managed to get the Raptor through fairly unscathed aside from smacking the passenger-side running board on a large rock, which gave it a new contour. Well, it was either that or go tumbling down a hillside.
This trail was a bit out of context for the Raptor, though. The specially built boondocker does a superb job at what it’s built for: specifically, roaring along fairly level desert terrain, shrugging off the bumps, gullies, sand and myriad obstacles while running at high speed. This is what we mostly tried out last year in dusty Borrego Springs, Calif., where Raptor was introduced to the media.
There were a few steep hills in the California test, including a sharp descent where we sampled Raptor’s Hill Descent Control, but mainly it was driving fast through the dry washes. Which obviously was a ton of fun and served to demonstrate the magic of Raptor’s trick suspension.
While Ford’s Specialty Vehicles Team is best known for its performance tuning of sports cars and trucks for the road and race track, the assignment this time was to build a go-anywhere pickup using the most advanced gear available. They came up with a turnkey monster truck that couldn’t possibly be built in the aftermarket for any place near the base price of around $38,000, even if you had the technical skill to do it.
Raptor’s extra width was needed to accommodate 11.2 inches of vertical wheel travel up front and 12.1 inches in the rear. Specially made front lower control arms made of cast aluminum jut far out from the chassis. A heavy, four-mil skid plate protects the underside.
Off-road enthusiasts are well-acquainted with Fox Racing Shox, which underpin all four corners of Raptor. These shock absorbers are massive, with huge reservoirs that contain three internal bypasses that stiffen them in stages as they compress. This provides a soft ride until the Shox need to react to harsh conditions.
This is the leading concept of Raptor’s suspension. The truck is actually sprung more softly than a standard F-150, which allows the suspension to absorb rough terrain at high speeds while the shock absorbers provide the necessary control.
The effect on the rocky Arizona trail was to tame the constantly jarring bumps and ruts, so that my passenger and I were treated to a relatively stress-free ride. Instead of the tiring and eventually annoyingly stiff trips that usually bounce us along these kinds of trails, we were comfortable and relaxed, and we could have gone at it all day.
Electronics naturally play a large role in making this all work. Advanced features include a switch-controlled locking rear differential in two-wheel, four-wheel and four-wheel-low settings; hill-descent control, which maintains a constant pace down the steepest grades; AdvanceTrac; Roll Stability Control; and an Off-Road Mode that engages a third throttle map and shift schedule for improved performance on the rough stuff.
The tires are BFGoodrich 35-inch All-Terrain T/As specially designed for Raptor with a softer tread compound and more lateral stiffness, designed to increase traction and durability off road and improve steering response on road.
On the highway or city streets, where any Raptor most likely will spend most of its time, handling and drivability are surprisingly precise, considering the extreme purpose-built suspension. Hardly nimble, though, and tough to maneuver in tight places, such as parking lots.
The compliant suspension provides a cushioned ride, but it’s well-controlled and rarely exhibits excessive body movement. But it does wiggle and jiggle pretty much all the time, except on the smoothest surfaces, and requires constant attention on the highway to keep it tracking within its lane.
The Space Cab interior has a bunch of legroom up front, though it could use a telescoping steering column to match for us tall guys, and I would have appreciated a dead pedal for resting my left foot. The rear seat, as in most of these lengthened-cab pickups, is tight with a stiffly upright backrest.
The Raptor’s optional burnt-orange exterior was matched inside with a sherbet-orange-and-silver cabin, which feels both funky and functional. Switches and controls are readily at hand, and a quartet of auxiliary switches come wired for whatever extra lights, winches or off-road gadgets that the driver wants to add on. That’s a thoughtful addition.
The Raptor I drove had the new, bigger V8, a $3,000 option. The 6.2-liter powerhouse churns up 411 horsepower and 434 pound-feet of torque, just right for climbing walls or towing 6,000 pounds of adventure gear.
Nobody’s talking about the fuel mileage; the 6.2-liter Raptor is EPA-rating exempt because of its gross vehicle weight. But since the base 5.4-liter, 310-horsepower V8 rates at just 14 city and 18 highway, figure on some pathetic number of miles per gallon for the big gun. All I know is, a tank of gas got slurped up pretty quickly.
The six-speed automatic works well enough, but it lacks a proper manual-shift feature so that you can choose your gear either on or off road. I was surprised to find this missing since it’s such a common feature these days on everything from compact cars to luxury SUVs.
But if nothing else, Raptor certainly has a bigger-than-life presence wherever it wanders. It’s huge front aspect and muscular stance looks menacing and aggressive. Traffic skedaddles out of your path.
But if you’re shy, don’t buy, since you’re constantly the center of attention. That’s good or bad attention. For instance, while using the Raptor as a regular pickup truck to tote home a piece of furniture, the woman at the counter looked out the front window to see what I was driving and said with a hint of derision, “Oh, you have a monster truck.”
But the two guys who loaded the Raptor were all over it, even crawling underneath to check out the suspension mods.
The base price of $38,000 seems like a bargain for all this capability and eyeball. The test Raptor also included the $3,000 bigger V8; a $2,430 audio upgrade/navigation system; an interior luxury packager, $1,950; a fairly lurid graphics package, $1,075; the “molten orange” paint, $495; a very-necessary rear-view camera, $450; an innovative tailgate step, $375; and a couple of other goodies.
The cavalcade of options brought the price up to a not-insignificant $49,395, perilously close to the deal-breaking $50,000 mark. But there’s no doubt that this is a whole lot of truck that is absolutely unique and could not be duplicated.
All in all, Raptor was fun to have around, and it was nice to have a pickup bed when I needed one. Actually, this pickup truck should be considered more of a fun-time recreational vehicle than a workable pickup truck. Unless, of course, you live on top of a mountain with otherwise impassable roads.
Details
Vehicle type: Five-passenger, four-door pickup truck, four-wheel drive.
Engine: 6.2-liter V-8, 411 horsepower at 5,500 rpm, 434 pound-feet of torque at 4,500 rpm.
Transmission: Six-speed automatic.
Wheelbase: 133 inches.
Overall length: 220.9 inches.
Curb weight: 5,908 pounds.
Towing capacity: 6,000 pounds.
EPA fuel mileage: Exempt, but not good.

Bob Golfen, Automotive Editor for SPEED.com, is a veteran auto writer based in Phoenix, Arizona, who has driven and evaluated essentially every new vehicle sold in the United States. A lifelong car enthusiast with a passion for collector cars, car culture and the automotive lifestyle, he annually attends and writes about Arizona’s famous January collector-car auctions, focusing on Scottsdale’s monumental Barrett-Jackson Collector Car Event and other Barrett-Jackson auctions. SPEED.com fans email Automotive Editor Bob Golfen at {encode=” [email protected]” title="[email protected]"}
The opinions reflected herein are solely those of the above commentator and are not necessarily those of SPEED.com, FOX, NewsCorp, or Speed Channel
 
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