I agree with goblues38 that most people here pan it as "meh", but I went back in May of 17 and I really enjoyed it for what it was, and didn't regret flying out there on my dime from the east coast. Sure, Ford could've made it more intense, but then the program would soon be pile of wrecked trucks and bad press from lawsuits (yes, you sign a waiver). I was happy with the overview of the truck's capabilities, design thoughts, and how it translated to braking and handling. Especially for a one day event. The RA crew were great people who seemed to really enjoy what they did, and answered lots of questions. I'm hard pressed to figure out how they could've made it more intense without screening the attendees. My class was a mix of experienced offroaders, suburban /pavement drivers, Ford car enthusiasts, and people who just seemed to have money to burn and wanted a Raptor. This only matters because you have to pick one of these unknown people as your co-driver for the day, so you need to be able to deal with them all day and hopefully be able to enjoy or learn something from their turn at driving, as opposed to thinking when is this rookie moron's turn over so I can drive this rig? But my class was a pretty good bunch of people, just mixed abilities. Funny part is, when it was time to hit the Baja mode section I had no idea if my co-driver could go fast with control. He let out this maniacal loud laugh and went Baja-bansaii with the go pedal right out of the shoot. I'm no snowflake but hitting 60+ miles an hour in an unknown section with deep ruts and hard-packed 1-2 foot sidewalls on very narrow tracks had the pucker factor up. Rolling was on my mind. I've heard they've forced people to throttle it down a bit, and rotate the course sections used based on weather and wear, but again, I have a guy flipping a 6k pound Raptor around and I've got nothing telling me he can pull it off other than faith and a clenched a-hole. Funny in hindsight, but not so funny at the moment.
But key for me was seeing the abuse the trucks took all day, every day. I asked the RA crew what kinds of mechanical issues they were seeing at that time from all the course work, and they said nothing significant. Biggest problem was mud caking on the cooling fans and making noise. Amazingly (assuming they were honest, and I have no reason to think they weren't) when I asked about needing regular alignment work they said it hasn't been required; really regular maintenance stuff and occasionally replacing tires from rock damage. At least in my class, the attendees beat the snot out of the trucks on the baja section, and if a factory truck (underhood was stock, maybe an air filter, and the trucks had chase racks with some auxillary lighting and radios) can take the pounding I saw every day even for 3 months straight, I'm confident I'm not going to bust up my truck unless I'm deliberately looking to test it's limits. I definitely appreciated it more when I came back home, and personally I have no intention of running the Baja 1000 with it or taking it to extremes, but I do use it. Speaking of, it was really neat to drive out to the baja section as a team convoy, ride the trucks rough (the whole time in dust, with the AC on and cooled seats), and then pull out onto a regular highway and drive them back like nothing happened. I already knew it was a flexible, capable vehicle, but it was great to see it all in one day, especially in a truck I didn't own. The Ford exec that was there encouraged us to flog them a bit, kinda the rental car approach.
I'm sure people will have other opinions and experiences, but my trip was all around great. Weather was dry, sunny, and perfect temperature. I ended it with a good meal and beers in downtown Salt Lake, then flew out the next day. I hope the people yet to go have a similar good time.
