It was hard to suppress a yawn as Ford Special Vehicle Team driver Matt Johnson drifted the new F-150 SVT Raptor through some deep sand, mere feet from a rock wall. Behind us, a rooster tail of hot, dry dust has plastered the assembled photographers. A thrilling scene to be sure, but it's all in a day's work for the Raptor, the truck that makes high-speed off-roading easy.
The Raptor dates back to about 2006. At that time, when everyone pretty much thought that SVT was dead, Ford's skunk works was actually deciding how to treat the upcoming F-150. The obvious path would have been a reborn SVT Lightning. That high-performance street truck is something of a legend, and SVT presumably had plenty of go-fast parts to work with, including a supercharged 5.4-liter V-8 from their own Shelby GT500. Instead, SVT engineers decided to do something completely fresh. And by fresh, we mean dirt.
"We wanted a truck that you could drive on the street and kick everyone's butts with on the sand," said Johnson.
To illustrate the first part of the Raptor's mission, Ford handed us the keys to a bright orange example in San Diego and sent us on a four-hour on-road drive to Borrego Springs. Through city traffic, highways, and eventually, winding mountain passes, the SVT Raptor behaves every bit as well as a standard F-150 - which is to say, not that well.... Read full article