When it comes to trucks, I am very hard to impress. Working on a truck magazine for the past 5 years has pushed me into the drivers seat of just about everything that has come to market during my stead. On top of that, I have been fortunate enough to have driven or been driven in every type of off-road vehicle you can find from buggy to Trophy Truck. I was recently invited to test drive the new Ford Raptor after being teased with shotgun rides a few months back in Santa Barbara. Monday morning I headed towards Ocotillo Wells, CA with hopeful dreams.
I have seen the truck before, but once again it’s appearance is exactly what an off-road lover wants. Fiberglass wider front fenders, nice wide track width, 35-inch tall BFG ATKO tires, race-inspired styling, red stripe center notched steering wheel and SVT white face gauges. Over the past few years we have seen all the garbage No Fear Edition trucks hitting the trucks. Basically, crap. Really bad looking fenders, cheesy front slap-on bumpers, a slightly better-than-stock shock package and some tires. Not worth the added price tag. Ford kicked it up not one, or two but about 15 notches with the Raptor.
Getting into the drivers seat felt nice and somewhat familiar. The seat is a nice captain style seat with added side and lower support much like what you would find in a race truck/car. I also noticed the steering wheel is different from the standard F150, it has added supports around the upper grip section which comfort the palm of your hand well. The truck is only available in a 4-door suicide-door type model, so don’t expect a full compliment of 4 full doors. According to Ford, this truck is never going to change from the way it’s being released. In fact, there are only 4 minor options you can choose front aside from color.
Ford setup two separate missions for us media folk to discover the true capabilities of the Raptor. The first was a 4wd rock crawl section that allowed us to thoroughly test the trucks hill descent feature. The truck had no trouble tackling this very tame course. A good portion of media people on events like this have very little time in the dirt. Because of this, OE’s need to keep the level of difficulty down (bummer). The final descent was a 45% grade downhill that would keep the “street queen” folk’s asses puckering and us off-road guys wanting more. Hill descent was controlled, but didn’t feel much different or better than other hill descent controls found on other trucks currently on the market offering this feature. It’s a really nice feature if you lack confidence in the dirt, but for life-long offroaders, it robs the fun and leaves you with an uneasy feeling keeping both feet off the pedals. I tried a few of the “controlled” downhill sections with HD turned off (was suppose to be on) just for fun. The brakes handled remarkably well. I should mention we did all of this with the Raptor’s “off-road mode” turned on. I will elaborate on that later.
One letdown was the lack of the 6.2-liter engine model. I was REALLY looking forward to driving the new 6.2. Oh well, the 5.4 is a great engine and because it’s already been in the F150 for years, the aftermarket goods are ripe for the taking. There is no reason you cant mod up this motor and get a 500 horsepower Raptor parked in your garage. The 5.4 was smooth and the all-new Raptor designed 2 into 1 exhaust system sounded great. A nice throaty muscle car type sound without that annoying 60mph drone.
Next up was the high-speed driving test. This is why I came. I have been offroading in OCO for roughly the past 15 years. I know just about every trail out here which meant I would easily be able to tell if the Raptor was nothing more than hype. Shell Reef Expressway, San Felipe Wash, Fault, Pole, etc… were all familiar trails to me. I know how they feel in other stock trucks, mid-level race vehicles, SXS vehicles and killing the speedo in a Trophy Truck. Ford setup a 22-mile loop for us that would put the truck through whoops, sand pits, banks, wide open flats and small jumps. I forgot my helmet at home which made me sad having to stuff my head into a loaner lid that was shared amongst the group (yuck). Each truck was loaded up with one media professional (I guess that means me) and one level 4 Ford driving instructor. Ford brought out their top dog certified test drivers to keep us safe. Thanks!
As Eric (my instructor) and I sat and waiting for our 5 minute gap to end he went over the course with me. Basically, he was going to shout instructions at me like a rally car navigator. The course was setup with forward, right, left, down and stop arrows. He was also going to let me know how fast I should be going in each section. Immediately, I was already thinking of breaking them. As the timer reach zero and the guy who left in front of me was far enough out of reach so I couldn’t catch him, I turned to Eric and said “Has anyone caught up to the guy in front?” He said, “No”. Talk about motivation! We started in San Felipe Wash which is mostly mild with some moderate size whoops along the way. The first mile he had me drive with off-road mode turned off so I could feel how the ABS kills your momentum as well as the Stabilitrack system. As expected, the truck felt like every other stock truck with everything on, the brakes sucked and the Stabilitrack was killing every bit of fun. After the first mile, I flipped off-road mode to on and this beast came alive.
A rough overview of what “Off-Road Mode” is: “The off-road enthusiast has the option to switch to two available settings – sport mode and full off-road mode depending on their driving situation. The sport mode shuts off traction control enabling the vehicle to have more yaw movement. Full off-road mode shuts off all electronic stability programs and the ABS system switches to a special off-road setting. Widening the threshold of sport mode, the wheels will lock more which is helpful in off-road terrain. Also in full off-road mode, the locking rear differential is allowed to stay locked at elevated speeds to mimic a spool differential found on racing trucks. Off-Road Mode engages a third throttle map and a third shift schedule for improved off-road performance. Third throttle map alters the throttle by changing the driver demand table so it is better suited to high and low-speed off-road driving conditions. A third shift schedule is a unique strategy for the off-road environment that holds the transmission in each gear for a longer period of time, allowing better engine throttle modulation to control the vehicle.” - from Ford.
Now, with ORM on, I finally felt like I had full control of the truck. I could actually steer the truck through corners sliding the rear end out when I felt it needed to be. The throttle stayed in gear longer which kept my RPMs high keeping the power ready on demand. I did a full brake stomp from 40mph to zero and it felt much like a race truck. A controlled skid pushing dirt with you as expected. Not an ABS type stop shaking the vehicle from side to side killing the pedals. The push of one little button really changed this truck more than expected. On top of all the electronic goodness, Fox Racing and BFG absolutely hit the mark with their products. Ford worked hand in hand with Fox to dial in the shocks both front and rear to work with the SVT suspension. BFG redesigned the ATKO especially for this truck. I didn’t believe it at first and I actually called my contact at BFG to confirm. The only problem I see with this is if you blow a tire, do you have to go to Ford to purchase a new one? I don’t see BFG stocking Raptor tires at every Discount Tire shop across the US, do you?
Through mid-sized whoops the truck handled great. Front travel measures 11.2-inches and the rear is 12.1-inches. If you purchase this truck, please remember, it’s not a race truck. It performs better in the dirt than any other OEM truck on the market, but it’s still limited to what it is. Just because you have a Raptor doesn’t mean you can launch 20-foot gaps and fly endlessly through the air. As I continued on my drive, Eric kept shouting out speeds which I was basically doubling. He let me know that he felt I was good enough to allow me to drive the truck faster than what was setup. I’m glad he did because at one point I was flat out wide open at about 95mph and damn did it feel smooth. When we got into some larger whoops the truck moved much like a 12-inch travel truck would. It’s not setup to take on the big stuff but even when it bottomed out, it was controlled with no big slap at the end of it’s travel. The Fox internal triple bypass shocks did their job amazingly well. Big 35-inch tires were a joy in the dirt where more rubber is always a good thing. At the end of my ride I was hoping Eric would invite me on another ride but my time was up.
As I said, I am hard to impress but this week I was. At a price point of $38,995 Ford will sell this truck. The F150 FX4 is roughly $36,000 depending on what options you choose which means for $3,000 more you can buy the Raptor. If you are an off-road lover, I don’t see a reason to not spend the extra dough. Better suspension, better tires, better looks, the neato off-road mode electronics, what more do you want for $3,000? I haven’t said this in a long time but, I would buy this truck.
Here are some Iphone snaps from the event. You can look for more from me on the Raptor in Off-Road Magazine soon. Subscribe! 
Finally, we got to see some non orange models. I’d take one in white!
The new axle found only on the Raptor.
SVT & Fox suspension.
I wanted to include a pic of the photo copter that was out following us around. Apparently, the pilot did a lot of work on Top Gun and some other movies. He was pretty insane flying VERY close to us performing some interesting maneuvers.
