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We're still missing the Raptor around here -- me worse than anybody. But today I saw this flat black SuperCrew Raptor cruising down the freeway looking utterly bad ass with black aftermarket wheels. It was like somebody read my mind.
More images after the jump.
Like M. Schmidt, I too miss our dearly departed 2010 Ford SVT Raptor.
Maybe we can replace it with this.
I spotted this bad boy, property of the US Navy, at the 2011 X-Games over the summer.
It's called M-ATV, a Special Forces All Terrain Vehicle with USN markings. This vehicle is used by US Naval Special Warfare Command (NSW) by our top Special Operations sailors.
If you're in the Teams and have actually driven this thing, let me know and I'll post your driving impressions (it's supposed to drive like a dump truck.)
More photos and a brief spec sheet on the jump.
Albert Austria, Senior VE Engineer
I'm sad to see our Raptor go. I miss having an SUV in the fleet. But at the same time it creates excitement as to what we'll get next. I've always been a fan of the Defender, but it doesn't look like a possibility.
I look at the site bringatrailer.com almost every day. It's basically car porn. It's filled with the bizarre and cool. I find reading the site is similar to being stuck in a multi-hour Wikipedia knowledge quest. By the time you're done, you have 30 tabs open and can't remember where you started. But recently I did see something that grabbed my attention...
We sold the Ford F-150 Raptor last night after only 12 days -- not the two months as dwengier77 predicted. We priced the car aggressively, but knew we would probably have to drop the price during negotiations. Buyers aren't afraid to offer thousands less than the asking price.
I just got back from taking our Ford F-150 Raptor to Carmax and I was a little disappointed by the appraisal. The service was great and I was in and out of there in about 30 minutes, but I was expecting a "strong money," offer like the recently departed Volkswagen GTI.
Take a closer look at this image. It was shot from the Raptor on the freeway last week. Study it carefully. Every detail.
And then tell me what you would do if you were driving the Raptor and this guy pulled up next to you and laughed.
Our time with the Ford F-150 Raptor is nearing the end. Now that the truck is clean, the next order of business was an oil change. We always take care of any maintenance that is needed before we put our vehicles up for sale. The next scheduled maintenance was the 30K service, which in some vehicles, is considered a major service. We checked the manual and it turned out that the Raptor only needed an oil change and tire rotation. Its major service occurs at 60K, when the transmission fluid and filter need to be replaced.
Yesterday we began saying our goodbyes to the Raptor. With those goodbyes comes a survey of the truck's condition -- evidence that maybe, just maybe, we don't destroy everything we drive, as some of you contend.
Have at look a the skidplate. Or maybe a more appropriate name would be the non-skidplate.
But wait, there's more...
I got the email on Monday. "Detail the Raptor" it read. "We're going to sell it." So yesterday the coolest truck to ever grace our fleet spent half the day getting babied.
Below is a brief survey of its condition at almost 30,000 miles.
Seriously, what would you use it for? I'm talking about that rubberized storage tray on top of the dashboard of our long-term 2010 Ford F-150 SVT Raptor.
You wouldn't want to put your sunglasses, radar detector, or navi up there as they would probably get fried in the direct sunlight. And if you put your wallet or phone in that shallow tray it would fly around if you ended the pathetic streak and drove at speed on the dirt roads with the idiots.
What about a book? C'mon. Most Raptor drivers are illiterate (that's a joke.)
If that tray was covered with a door it would protect the contents from the sun and from flying around the cabin (although I've never used those, either.) But it's just easier to use the center console storage and the cupholders for your small things instead of any type of top of the dashboard storage.
What would you use that tray (or any of those dashboard trays) for?
Albert Austria, Senior Vehicle Evaluation Engineer @ ~29,000 miles
I discovered this trim panel coming off of the Raptor's rear driver's side door yesterday. It's ugly and it makes noise if the truck is driven hard.
It's official. My pathetic streak is over. I might not have needed to engage the Raptor's four-wheel drive, but I did spend some time in the dirt this weekend. Sideways, even.
Here's how things like this go in Orange County: There's one accessible (no gate, no long drive) dirt road in the county on which to have some fun. One. As a result, the stupidity level on that road is high on the weekends. It's five miles of the roughest, nastiest dirt anywhere. There are washboards sections, offest frame twisters, creek crossings, water bars and idiots.
Did I mention the idiots?
Pick-up trucks in the Extended Cab configuration (Iike our long-term 2011 Ford F-150 Raptor) seem to be quite popular. And for good reason. They allow you easy access to the rear seat, but keep the overall length of the vehicle shorter than a Crew Cab configuration.
The downside is that if you don't make sure the you get the door to hold on the door check, it can swing back closed on your leg while you're grabbing your gear in the back seat.
I know this from experience.
Albert Austria, Senior VE Engineer @ 28, 900 miles
A friend of mine is threatening to sell us this for our long-term fleet. It's a 1997 Land Rover Defender 90 hardtop with the very desirable automatic transmission and about 70,000 miles on it. What do you think? You guys still up for one of these?
Why? Well, we're selling our Raptor soon and need to replace it with something.
Scott Oldham, Editor in Chief
While I was driving the Ford Raptor, Joe was piloting his Ark.
Kelly Toepke, News Editor
A scrap heap, where I dropped of some old brake rotors, the busted red floor jack used in the first suspension walkarounds and a rusted and leaky (and fully drained, and flushed) gas tank from that '57 Ford of mine.
(Let me know if this or any of the following shots of the 2010 Ford SVT Raptor's exploits during my recent move should be submitted to Donna for a caption contest.)
Is there anything that doesn't fit in the bed of our Ford F-150 Raptor?
What would you like to see in the back of our Raptor? I vote for the Fiat 500.
Donna DeRosa, Managing Editor
There are things in life that once you experience them, there's just no going back. Who wants an Atari 2600 after playing an NES? Who wants to go back to cassette tapes after CDs? Who wants a tube television after watching a plasma or LCD TV?
As I was driving the Ford F-150 Raptor yesterday-- which as you see has no navigation system-- I realized that I couldn't go back to owning vehicle that doesn't have nav. I was stuck in traffic and wanted to find an alternate street. Having a navigation system would have let me check if the surrounding streets were a viable option or a dead end. I had my smartphone with me, but I had poor 3G reception and it was taking way too long to bring up the map. It was frustrating and since I was in the Raptor, I wished I could roll over the cars in front of me.
The move is over. I'm in my new place. Things got so busy I didn't have time to post everything our 2010 Ford F-150 SVT Raptor did to support the effort in real time.
The last thing I moved -- or attempted to move -- was my '57 Ford 2-door Del Rio wagon. Of course it wouldn't start. The Raptor tried it's best to jump the old sled, but it still wouldn't turn over.
I'm sure a couple of hours of fiddling and a couple of trips to the auto parts store would have handled it. But I was short of time and, more to the point, the movers had already left with my tools.
Time to call in a flatbed. I was in no mood to futz with it anyway.
Dan Edmunds, Director of Vehicle Testing @ I forget miles
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