2010 Ford F-150 SVT Raptor: diamond in rough

BORREGO SPRINGS, CALIF.–It's 39C on the shadeless desert floor, my head is stuffed into a helmet, I'm on an off-road racing trail, and a member of the Ford Special Vehicle Team (SVT) is telling me to push the truck he helped to create as close to its limits as I care to go.

So that's what I do with his 2010 F-150 SVT Raptor, taking it at 120 km/h over the washboard trail, sliding it through the sand dunes, and yumping – an off-road term for hairy driving that I'd never heard until I actually did it – over crests at speeds I would expect to tear the suspension apart.

It's all in a day's work for the Raptor, an all-new model for 2010, and the first SVT truck since the 2004 Lightning. Introduced worldwide not at a traditional auto show, but at last November's Specialty Equipment Market Association (SEMA) aftermarket show in Las Vegas, the Raptor is fast, but more importantly, you can't get this combination of power and prowess off the showroom floor in any other vehicle.

Canada's getting just less than 550 of them for 2010, sold only through SVT-authorized dealers. The tag starts at $48,299, which includes a standard Luxury Package featuring 10-way heated leather seats with memory, dual-zone automatic climate control, six-CD stereo, auto-dimming exterior mirror and power-adjustable pedals that are an option on U.S. trucks.

It's a lot of money, but then, it's a niche market, and this is a specialty truck with unique features. It's impossible to outfit a regular F-150 exactly like it, at any price.

And more importantly, and very unusually for this much off-road ability, it also has impeccable on-road manners.

You can take it through the roughest terrain (Ford has also tested it extensively in snow and mud, obviously more common than desert sand around here) and then aim it down the Don Valley Parkway in almost ridiculous comfort, instead of paying once for a weekend toy and then again for a workday commuter.

The Raptor comes only as a Super Cab, with rear-hinged back doors, and with a 5-foot-5 box; the short wheelbase adds with its agility.

The sole engine is a 5.4 L V8, producing 320 horsepower, with a six-speed automatic transmission. Ford will add an optional all-new 6.2 L V8, churning out an estimated 400 horses later this year. Four-wheel-drive is naturally the only configuration available.

Unique touches start with the body, which is almost 178 mm wider than a stock F-150, necessary to accommodate the wider suspension and Raptor-specific, 35-inch BF Goodrich tires.

The extra width requires clearance lights, slick little LEDs at the four corners, along with three tucked into the huge grille that carries the brand name across its width.

Raptor's fenders and fascia also round off the conventional F-150's cinder block styling, while the interior includes SVT-specific gauges, wheel and trim. Four auxiliary switches on the console are pre-wired and fused with easily accessible harnesses, making it simple to hook up such extra items as winches and lights.

But the Raptor's heart is in its suspension. Ford turned to racing shock manufacturer Fox Engineering, which created a new and rebuildable internal-triple-bypass shock that, unlike most of Fox's products, you can only buy when the rest of the Raptor is attached. Ford says it's also the first time any production truck has used this type of shock.

The shock stiffens as it compresses, becoming some four times harder at the end of the stroke.

If this truck does bottom out, I couldn't get it to do so.

I took the highest yumps on the trail at some 65 km/h, and while they lifted my butt off the seat, the landing wasn't much harder than over a speed bump at the mall.

Normally that type of performance will also mean a rock-hard trip on the way home, but on the tarmac, those same shocks provide a pliable ride that's more comfortable than the regular F-150's performance.

The suspension is unique to Raptor, and travel is 284 mm in front and 307 mm in rear – again, more what you'd expect from a homebuilt rock crawler.

And Ford also throws in a new electronic locking differential that will remain engaged at any speed; the company says most competitors' units disengage at around 32 km/h.

Raptor's hill descent control is new for Ford; other features include a 2,721 kilogram towing capacity, trailer sway control, tow haul mode, and a factory-installed trailer brake controller.

An off-road mode button alters the throttle and transmission performance, and the electronic stability control can be turned off entirely when desired.

So does any of this make sense at a time when hybrids are hot and compacts are king?

Yes. No matter what fuel prices do, trucks are a necessity for some and a pastime for others, and if Go RVing can run television ads extolling the virtues of driving a house across the country, I don't see why the off-road crowd should be expected to do without its fix.

Ford has created a low-volume halo truck that's among the best I've driven.

Expect it to turn heads on the trail and tarmac for some time to come.

Travel for freelance writer Jil McIntosh was provided by the automaker. jil@ca.inter.net

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