Sunday, February 1, 2009

Green Lighted: 2010 Ford F-150 SVT Raptor

2010 Ford F150 Svt Raptor Front View

Green Lighted: 2010 Ford F-150 SVT Raptor

The Raptor gets the green light and breaks down the gates.
By Todd Lassa

The rap about "street trucks" like Dodge's Ram SRT-10, Chevy's Silverado SS and Ford's own F-150 SVT Lightning is that they handled and performed well...for trucks.

2010 Ford F 150 SVT Raptor Front View

In designing a performance version of Ford's iconic pickup, Special Vehicle Teams chose a different direction for the 2010 F-150 SVT Raptor. Widen the body of a Supercrew, redo front and rear suspensions, tweak the four-wheel-drive calibration and make it an off-road capable pre-runner.

The Raptor also gets a new truck engine, a 6.2L, two-valve (for better torque characteristics than multivalvers) overhead-cam V-8. Tuning isn't final, but SVT says the oversquare engine will be rated about 400 hp and about 400 lb-ft of torque. The engine was an on-again, off-again project known as the Hurricane V-8. Its official name is simply "6.2," and Ford will not use it in any other F-150s, so it's mainly a Super Duty truck engine that might also be used in whatever is left of the Expedition and Lincoln Navigator lines.

2010 Ford F 150 SVT Raptor Front View

From the A-pillar forward, the Raptor has unique sheetmetal from other F-150s and is bereft of a Blue Oval badge in the grille. SVT widened the track by 7 in., and so its 5.5-ft box is unique to the Raptor as well. Height is up 2 in.over a standard Supercrew. It has new, internal bypass shocks, designed by Fox Racing Shox for a smooth ride on-road that stiffens up when the driver reaches high speeds off-road. Fox's new shocks are designed to do what external bypass shocks do, without the packaging problems. The Raptor has new leaf springs and shocks, new front upper- and lower-A-arms, and a new, wider, thicker-walled rear axle.

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