There's no messing around with Ford and the way they test upcoming models. After all, they added a Sport Mode on the F-150 pickup truck, so that says a lot.
This time we're here to talk about the 2017 Ford F-150 Raptor, an old acquaintance of ours. Now, if you remember, the Raptor is considered by Ford their "toughest, smartest, most capable off-road truck ever".
For these traits to reflect in real life, FoMoCo is testing the F-150 Raptor as if the pickup truck was a top athlete training for the Olympics.
So in the most recent video released by Ford, the 2017 F-150 Raptor has a rendez-vous with an offroad course, where the badass pickup truck typically feels at home.
The action takes place in Northern Michigan, where the F-150 Raptor gets up close and personal with a bunch of steep slopes, sand patches, and a vertical log climbs. There's also a muddy pond towards the end of the video, which doesn't seem to cause too much trouble for the hardcore pickup truck.
What Ford wanted to showcase with the video has a lot to do with the vehicle's improved ground clearance and the standard new 3.0-inch FOX Racing Shox with custom internal bypass technology.
This shock-absorbing solution works to damp and stiffen suspension travel over rough terrain, and can get the F-150 Raptor out of dirty situations together with the new four-wheel-drive, torque-on-demand transfer case.
Previous testing sessions showed the Raptor can reach speeds of 100 mph (160 km/h) over certain terrain, and overall, the pickup is 25 percent faster than the current truck based on lap times.
Responsible for that is a 3.5-liter V6 EcoBoost engine that develops around 415 horsepower and 434 lb-ft (587 Nm) of torque. What Ford is testing at this moment are not production-ready cars, but rather mules that used a mix of components from the 2015 F-150 Raptor and the upcoming 2017 F-150 Raptor.
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