Ford F-150 Raptor

Looking for an attractive truck that you can bring on and off road? Here is the Ford F-150 Raptor!

Ford’s muscular truck- F-150 Raptor, is becoming more genuine, presumably with its long-awaited Boss V-8 engine. Do you want the latest spy shots of this ride? Know these facts as you anticipate the new model’s release on 2010 or 2011. Yes, you heard it right. You still gotta wait for two years or three. Haha.

Ford’s new marketing chief Jim Farley seemingly was downright excited with the Ford name stamped into the grille’s black mesh. This was based on his expression on one pictures captured by photographers during the automaker’s 2008 Dealer Show. The audience were teased with video footage of a Raptor mule bombing across the desert at high speeds!

The “boss engine” was lined as being rated at 380-horsepower and 400 pound-feet of torque- different from some expectations of 400-plus hp 6.2-liter V-8 from the new modular Boss family. This would one-up the 5.7-liter V-8 in the Toyota Tundra and the 6.1-liter Hemi, and then GM’s 6.0-liter V-8. And because the Ford’s future powertrain evolves around EcoBoost—direct-injection and time and again turbocharged gasoline engine technology—this will be a trademark of the Boss engines, although the 6.2 in the Raptor would be logically aspirated.

Ford engineers who idled Essex Engine Plant in Windsor, Ontario, have been in anticipation of approval to build a new fuel-efficient V-8. Ford officials have not confirmed the product tentatively slated to be built at the Canadian plant, but the low-volume Boss appears to be a good fit. Windsor designed the Triton modular V-8 as Ford SVT F-150 Lightning pickup until it was stopped in 2004.

Timing of the Raptor dovetails is what Ford’s product development chief promises with a new modular V-8 for trucks by the end of the decade. This would be fruition of a project that dates back to 2005 when the engine was codenamed Hurricane.

One of the Raptor's long-travel shocks is sourced from Fox Racing and specially built for the Raptor program. This is reportedly the same as that of Fox's 2.0 Piggy Back reservoir shocks with 12 inches of travel, which is four more than the eight-inch shocks on Ford's FX-4 off-road trim package. Hence, on and off the road, this raptor can always get it on.
Ford execs are fired up, telling dealers that the Raptor is the first and only Baja 1000 Trophy Truck anyone could buy.

In 1992, Ford created its Special Vehicle Team, who made the Mustang Cobra and F-150 Lightning pickup, which was later followed by SVT versions of the Ford Contour and Focus. When the Lightning was phased out in 2004, the Dodge Ram SRT-10 used to be the undisputed performance-pickup king.

The most recent use of the badge was to produced, and 1000 of them will slap on the limited-run 2008 Shelby GT500KR Mustang. The last SVT vehicle prior to that was the 2007 Ford Mustang Shelby GT500. Ford has insisted the division was on break, but then it has been working on an SVT truck—presumably the Raptor, since the fall of 2006.

or the Raptor itself, the front clip of the mule running around looks like a modified version of the new and pending 2009 F-150. The air intake in the front bumper is larger and sports a wide grin. It may look like it is to feed more air to an intercooler for a turbocharger but at least not initially. You will see that the cooling vents atop the hood are not just ordinary vents, they function to lower engine compartment temperatures when at is in full steam.

“Premium fuel only” labels can be too obvious not to see on prototype instrument panels. Further fueling our optimism the Boss is on track. So, will you wait for the release of this beast? Dream on for now. Peace out!

img from autoblog.com