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2010 Ford F-150 Raptor |
Fresh from tuning the new 2010 Ford Shelby GT500 Mustang, Ford's Special Vehicle Team (SVT) have unveiled their latest creation, the F-150 Raptor, and the pony car heritage shines through on this off-road beast. When you take a pickup truck and lift it up a few inches, installing body lifts and new suspension, the final product is not exactly the best handling vehicle on the road. Well, until now, that is. The Raptor takes the tough suspension and high ground-clearance associated with an off-road racing truck, and merges it seamlessly with the handling expected of sedans and sports cars.
What makes that feat all the more impressive is that, prior to the Raptor, SVT had never even touched a four-wheel-drive system. The Lighting F-150 had rear wheel drive and was lowered down to sport car levels, so it wasn't meant to go off-road. And the tuning of a V8 pickup to perform well in a drag race on pavement is entirely different from tuning a truck to rip through off-road terrain at 50 mph.
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The SVT-tuned Raptor gets some air |
The 2010 Raptor is set to be equipped with the standard 5.4-liter Triton V8, tuned to 310 horsepower and 365 lb-ft of torque, and a 6.2-liter diesel version, another engine cribbed from the standard models, is planned for eventual introduction. The package that those engines sit in is a lot different from the standard F-150, though. Overall body width has been increased 7.7 inches, and the track width is 6.6 inches wider to aid in stability at higher speeds. The suspension travel is over 13 inches in the front, and a hair over 11 in the back, and is supported by Fox Racing components. The combination of high-performance suspension and the wider track width makes the Raptor handle like an average F-150 on the road, despite that massive suspension travel, and still allows for some incredible maneuvering on the sand and dirt.
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The Raptor is 7.7 inches wider than a standard F-150 |
Will the Raptor be around for awhile? Probably not. Likely, it will be relegated to some limited production run that Ford breaks out every few years or when the want to sponsor an off-road truck racer. Prices haven't been officially released yet, but insiders hint at a sales cost of about $35,000. Delivery fees might have to go up for this model though, because the Raptor is so wide that it just barely squeaks onto delivery trucks and train cars, and even on the assembly line, there are some spots where the bodies have a mere 10 mm of clearance.
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