2012 Ford F-150 SVT Raptor: King of the Sandbox - Ignition Episode 29
On this episode of Ignition
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MotorTranscript
00:00 [MUSIC PLAYING]
00:02 So here we have the monstrous and totally fantastic
00:29 Ford Raptor.
00:30 I mean, this is the big wheels truck we all
00:31 dreamed of owning as kids.
00:33 We're here at the test track, and I
00:35 could go over the test numbers and tell you
00:37 that it takes less than seven seconds to hit 60,
00:40 that it's pretty slow around our figure eight course.
00:42 But I'll ask, does that really matter?
00:44 I say no.
00:50 So this week, we're going to forget the whole ignition
00:53 testing regimen, and we're going to go have some fun.
00:55 We're going to go off road.
00:57 Now, unfortunately, in order to do that,
00:59 we have to travel for a few hours in LA traffic.
01:03 But that's actually proved a bit interesting,
01:05 because these past few hours have
01:07 shown that while this truck is incredible off road,
01:11 it's pretty good on the road, too.
01:13 I mean, sure, it's over a half a foot wider than an F-150,
01:18 but it's easy to place in your lane.
01:19 It has tons of great outward visibility.
01:21 And the ride-- I mean, why didn't anybody ever tell me
01:24 about the ride in this thing?
01:26 These Fox racing shocks do a wonderful job
01:28 of soaking up all the imperfections in the road,
01:31 making it feel really comfortable.
01:33 I mean, it's still a truck.
01:34 You're not going to get Bentley levels of comfort
01:36 out of this thing.
01:37 But it's very nice.
01:39 And when you're off road, you have 11.2 inches
01:42 of suspension travel in the front
01:43 and 12.1 inches of suspension travel in the rear.
01:46 I mean, that's the beauty of this truck.
01:48 It's the best of both worlds.
01:50 You have wheels that can be converted to beadlock,
01:53 but then you also have navigation, satellite radio,
01:55 iPod hookup, heated and cooled seats.
01:58 It's truly amazing.
01:59 [MUSIC PLAYING]
02:03 [MUSIC PLAYING]
02:07 [MUSIC PLAYING]
02:10 [MUSIC PLAYING]
02:13 See, that's the beautiful thing about the Raptor,
02:40 is that it's a serviceable daily driver,
02:43 as much as any full-size truck can be.
02:46 But then it just has these incredible off-road
02:48 capabilities.
02:51 It's the equivalent of the sports car
02:53 that you can drive every day to work,
02:55 and then take to the racetrack and be just fine.
02:58 This is like the 911 of off-road trucks.
03:01 It gives you all the controls you could possibly want.
03:04 You can shift to four high on the fly.
03:06 You can lock the diff by pulling this little knob here.
03:08 There's an off-road mode that we're in right now,
03:10 which lessens the intervention of the ABS system
03:13 and changes the throttle mapping and the shift patterns.
03:16 It makes the truck really controllable in the sandwash
03:20 like we're in right now.
03:21 And it has all the right hardware.
03:27 We have a Torsen differential up front,
03:30 a locking limited slip in the rear,
03:32 those just magical Fox Racing shocks
03:35 that make this thing ride so nicely on the road,
03:38 give it just total control off-road.
03:42 And this 6.2 liter V8 with its 411 horsepower and 434
03:48 pound feet of torque is the perfect engine
03:50 for this kind of stuff.
03:52 It has power everywhere in the rev range.
03:56 And it allows you to get away with some pretty wild stuff.
04:01 And that's the thing.
04:02 This makes off-roading really easy and really accessible.
04:06 It's not a difficult truck to drive or power slide off-road.
04:11 It's easy to point and steer, easy to drive.
04:14 Pedal feel is all right.
04:16 And it doesn't surprise you with any weird shifts
04:18 or any weird electronic intervention.
04:21 I can't express why this is so much fun.
04:26 It's just sort of like deep down,
04:29 it's like a childhood sensation of just going really fast
04:33 and something really big and heavy that
04:34 makes a lot of noise, that you're
04:36 sliding all over the place.
04:38 I'd love to commute on a road like this.
04:42 Yeah, that's really the beauty of off-road trucks
04:44 is when you find a good off-road area
04:46 and you can really start throwing them around,
04:48 they make you say like, hey, that's
04:50 a pretty cool looking sand wash over there.
04:53 I wonder how fast I could drive through it.
04:55 Or hey, that's a pretty neat mountain you got up there.
04:58 I want to be on top of it.
04:59 And you can, thanks to all the hardware in this truck.
05:02 One of the cool standard features on this year's Raptor
05:05 is a bead-locking wheel, or at least a wheel
05:07 that can be converted to bead-lock,
05:08 so long as you buy a kit through Ford Racing.
05:11 Now what bead-locking does is it literally
05:13 locks the tire to the rim, so that if you're airing pressures
05:17 down, if you're going through the sand or whatever,
05:19 you don't have to worry about the tire losing traction
05:21 with the rim itself or slipping at all.
05:23 It's a very cool feature for the more hardcore folk.
05:30 One of the cool things that Ford added to the Raptor
05:32 is this optional front camera.
05:34 It's put in the grill.
05:35 And when you're doing some climbing at low speeds,
05:37 sometimes it's difficult to see over the hood.
05:39 Well, this here allows you to check out exactly what's
05:42 in front of the truck.
05:44 This is by no means a serious hill,
05:46 but it's a good demonstration of how the screen works.
05:49 And the truck tackled that no problem.
05:53 We probably could have done that in two-wheel drive.
05:55 [ENGINE REVVING]
05:57 [LAUGHS]
05:59 This is like when you were a little kid.
06:02 I'm talking really little, like where you still
06:05 have difficulty finding the right place to crap.
06:08 The funnest thing you could do was charge through sandboxes
06:12 and just destroy everything in your path.
06:15 That's what this feels like.
06:16 [ENGINE REVVING]
06:18 [LAUGHS]
06:19 Woo-hoo-hoo-hoo!
06:20 Woo-hoo-hoo-hoo!
06:21 [LAUGHS]
06:28 What's so impressive is that the Raptor doesn't
06:30 sacrifice street capability.
06:32 In fact, its suspension upgrades make it a smoother driving
06:35 truck.
06:36 The light to moderate off-roading
06:38 we did only scratched the surface of the Raptor's talent.
06:41 And yet, it was some of the most fun
06:43 I've had in a truck with my pants on.
06:45 It's addicting, really, the way this truck urges you to seek
06:48 out things and conquer them.
06:50 Go ahead, it says.
06:51 Power slide through the dirt.
06:53 Climb mountains.
06:56 You know, I'll just say something really quick.
06:59 The indicator of a good car-- and this
07:01 is true for every car I've ever driven--
07:03 whenever they put this little notch
07:06 in the center of the steering wheel,
07:08 that means you're in a car that's going to be good.
07:11 Because when you're power sliding around
07:13 and doing opposite lock and all kinds of fun stuff,
07:15 you sometimes forget where dead center is.
07:17 And you don't want to fishtail out of a corner.
07:21 That's a nice little touch.
07:22 Anyone has that?
07:24 Audi.
07:25 Didn't they have it?
07:26 R8?
07:27 R8 has that.
07:28 R8 has a notch.
07:29 911 has a notch.
07:30 Yeah, that was--
07:32 Every good car has that little notch.
07:35 I think 458 has that notch, too.
07:37 You know what's house that notch?
07:38 F-150 Raptor.
07:40 You know what's house that notch?
07:41 F-150 Raptor.
07:42 Yep.