2017 Ford Raptor Desert Testing

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It appears Ford isn’t messing around when it comes to development of the second generation F-150 Raptor. Ford’s wildly popular high performance truck recently completed over 1,000 miles of testing on a desert course designed to replicate the Baja 1000.

A release from Ford stated that the test course was 66 miles long and featured a range of surfaces including fast sandy washes, deep ruts, steep climbs in sand, and slow crawls through tight trenches. The end of each lap also featured the truck taking on a tabletop jump onto a two-foot plateau, with a step-off back to level ground.

According to the release, the new Raptor is 25% faster than the current model based on lap times. The test drivers (where do we sign up for that job), topped speeds of 100 mph on the fast stretches and slowed to 10 mph for some of the crawl sections.

The trucks used in testing were prototypes comprised of 2015 F-150 and 2017 F-150 Raptor components. The final version of the 2017 Raptor will boast lighter aluminum body panels, a new boxed steel frame, and a 3.5 liter V6 twin turbo in place of the hefty 6.2 liter V8.

The 2017 Raptor will go on sale in fall 2016, but we’ll be watching for any new details along the way. We think it could use some night testing equipped with  PIAA LED lights here soon. 

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