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Will
Ford Badge the Rumored Raptor as an SVT Model?
By:
Mike Levine Posted:
04-08-08 12:01 PT
© 2008 PickupTruck.com
Page: [1]
Update
#1: 04-09-08 16:49 PT
The
Raptor is unofficially official.
Ford's
2008 Dealer Show is happening right now in Las Vegas, Nevada
and dealer sources attending the event are revealing what they've
seen and heard about the 'Raptor'. From what it sounds like,
the Raptor won't
be an urban legend for much longer
but cold, hard desert busting fact.
With
new Ford Marketing chief Jim Farley officially doing the honors
(he was described as "giddy" while introducing it), video of
a Raptor mule was shown bombing across
the desert at high speeds.
A
picture of the production grille was shown, with the word "FORD"
prominently stamped into its black mesh. The anticipated BOSS
engine was quoted as being rated at 380-horsepower and 400
pound-feet of torque. Both Sean
Holman at Four Wheeler and
I think the numbers are purposely on the low side. We're
estimating around 420-horses, based on the expected engine's
6.2-liter displacement.
One
of the Raptor's long-travel shocks was held up to the dealers.
It was confirmed as sourced from Fox Racing and specially built
for the Raptor program. It looked similar to Fox's 2.0 Piggy
Back reservoir shocks. They'll have 4-inches more travel (50%
more) than the 8-inch shocks found on Ford's off-road FX-4
trim package.
Ford
isn't holding back bragging about the truck, firing up dealers
by calling it, "The first and only Baja 1000 Trophy Truck
you'll be able to buy from a dealer." They also say they
are, "going
to drive this (and other vehicles shown to Ford dealers) right
up Toyota's a**."
This
is shaping up to be one killer truck.
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While we've
had our off-road attention recently drawn to Hummer's
new 2009 H3T rock crawler, our good buddy
Sean
Holman at Four Wheeler Magazine is putting the spotlight back
on the rumored 'Raptor'
F-150 desert runner.
The latest
intel from Dearborn suggests that Ford is going to badge the Raptor
as an official SVT (Special Vehicles Team) product.
An
SVT label hasn't been explicitly used on a Blue Oval car or truck since
Ford's legendary performance guru John Coletti retired in 2004, though
SVT engineers played critical roles developing recent cars like the
Ford GT, Mustang GT500 and Mustang GT500 King of the Road.
Ford truck
enthusiasts know the SVT badge from its endorsement of the discontinued
SVT Lightning
F-150 (1993 to 2003). When
the 2004 to 2008 F-150 debuted at the Detroit Auto Show it was accompanied
by a supercharged SVT
Lightning Concept that never materialized.
If Ford
is looking to resurrect the SVT prefix, attaching it to the new 2009
F-150 would signify how serious they are about producing a no-holds-barred
performance truck, whether it's for on or off the road.
Read
on to find out the latest
about the Raptor F-150 at Four Wheeler.
Page: [1]
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